The Trouble With Sues
by ShearViscosity
Summary: Suzy just wanted a cup of coffee.  What she got instead was a totaled car and a Mary Sue intent on joining the League.  Complete.
1. Goodbye Gertie, Hello Sue

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

I said this fic was Auish, because people are aware that there is another dimension/world out there that considers their's fiction. Next chapter will explain a bit more. Other than that, it's the same universe as the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited universe.

**The Trouble With Sues**

_December 5th, Watchtower interrogation room..._

"Your name is Suzy Smith, correct?"

I nod my head. It's the only thing I can do really; Batman is quite an imposing figure in person. There's the scowl for starters, as iconic as his costume. His costume, it's all dark, like the creature of the night he takes his name from. No bright reassuring colors, just darkness, letting you know he's there in the shadows always watching you. Then there's the gravelly voice. It sounds like the one the boogeyman I was afraid of as a child might have.

Up to now I've only seen pictures of him in magazines, newspapers, or on the internet or television. I've never been this close to a superhero before; I don't know how Gary does it every day. There's this aura coming off him that makes you want to go curl up into a protective ball while confessing all your sins. Even my mother isn't this intimidating when I'm spilling my secrets to her. She has cookies at least.

He's not even sitting; just standing across the table glaring menacingly. Annie would probably say something cute right now, trying to get him to smile. I can't help but wonder, does Batman ever smile? Can he even smile?

While pondering whether or not Batman can smile, I miss what he asks next, but it doesn't take a genius to guess what it was. He wants to know about what happened.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," I finally respond. Judging by his expression, I was right about the question. Go me.

"We have time," he growls, finally taking a seat in the chair across the table.

For a second, I think about lying or abridging my tale to protect everybody. Then I remember it's Batman I'm talking to and there's no way I can fool him. I'm not that talented as an actress to begin with, nor that great at coming up with lies on the spot. Besides, they're all probably being interrogated right now, just like I am. And they're lucky enough to not have the Bat.

"I'm waiting," he says, while I finish debating the pros and cons of lying to him.

I let out a groan. I wouldn't be in this mess if I had only remembered The Rules.

* * *

_Three month ago, the first week in September..._

The wait in line for coffee was taking forever. I swear I could hear the second hand of the clock on the wall mocking me with each tick. Tick, tick, you won't make it to class on time, you won't make it to class on time, tick, it seemed to say. Considering that I had spent the night before studying for my physics test (not that I even needed physics for my major, or that it works when it's suppose to) and now was on my way to my eight o'clock class, biology (another useless class in my opinion) I was in much need of some caffeine. It didn't help that the few hours of sleep I did get were spent dwelling on whether or not my boyfriend might be cheating on me.

The line was slowly inching forward, and I was doing the math in my head. I had a half hour to get to class. Broadway would be crowded so it would be best to take Maine...except it was still being repaired after that fight from last week. Maybe I should take the subway instead, and leave my car here? Except I didn't have enough quarters to feed the meter for the time I was going to be gone. Perhaps it would be best-

A loud crashing sound interrupted my thoughts. Like most customers, I turned my attention to the big windows in the front to see what the commotion was about. Another alien invasion perhaps? Maybe an evil villain once again plotting world domination through nefarious means? Once I saw what it really was, I suddenly found myself wishing it had been one of my former thoughts.

The world around me seemed to pause, waiting for my brain to process what I was seeing. My baby, my precious Gertie, was a crumpled heap of iron and twisted metal. I had spent two years saving up enough money for my own car, and finally purchased Gertie from a friend of the family who no longer needed it. Now my baby was lying in ruins, looking like a giant had smashed it with his fist. I was so in shock that the only sound I could manage was a high pitched choking noise.

Satisfied that nothing threatening_ their_ immediate safety was going on, the customers and staff went back to what they where doing, while I continued to look on in shock at Gertie.

"Aren't you going to move?" said a guy from behind, motioning me forward. That snapped me out of my daze. Taking in the sight of my poor baby I realized that I no longer needed caffeine to keep awake. I was plenty awake now, and was determined to make the person responsible for my baby's death pay. Biology was just going to have to wait.

* * *

The person in question, was clearly a superhero. The bright pink spandex made _that_ abundantly clear. As did the giant purple 'G' on her chest, and the pink cape flapping in the wind. Her hair was a tumbling mass of blonde curls with pink highlights that fell gently around her heart-shaped face. She had huge cerulean orbs for eyes, and her body filled out her costume perfectly, showing off each curve individually. She looked young, but she extruded an air of confidence, and her eyes shined with wisdom beyond her years.

Oh good god, what the hell did I ever do to deserve a Sue?

The Sue in question was dusting herself off, when she exclaimed cheerfully, "Thank goodness for my healing factor! Not a scratch on me!" She then noticed that I was starring at her. "No need to fear dear citizen, I, Galactic Girl, am here to protect you from evil doers!"

She really was a Sue, I cursed mentally. "You're going to protect me, like you protected my car?"

It was then the Sue, or Galactic Girl, finally noticed what she had used for a landing pad. "Oh, well that's what insurance is for right?" she said with a blinding smile that perfectly complimented her breathtaking lilac eyes.

Wait, lilac eyes? Her eyes change color? Yep, I was _so_ not going to make it to biology today. "Sorry, but you have to pay extra for superhero and villain coverage. What's your number?"

"My what?" asked the Sue, in a completely endearing way.

I was suddenly grateful that I never actually ordered cup of coffee. Otherwise it'd be coming up right about now. "Your badge number. The one that you're given as a member of the Justice League. I have to know it so I can file a claim with their insurance."

"Oh," said the Sue absentmindedly, and started to twirl a golden ringlet around her index finger. "That's the thing... I'm not an actual member yet. But I plan on it soon!" she giggled excitedly.

"What do you mean by, 'soon'?" I said slowly, dreading the answer.

The Sue's demeanor suddenly changed. Her emerald eyes started to fill up with glistening tears that were threatening to spill over, and her rose-colored lower lip began to tremble slightly. "It all began many years-"

"Nobody cares about your back story," I interrupted before she could get a chance to launch into her back story. The last thing I needed was to waste an hour of my time losing brain cells while listening to this bimbo.

"But the audience does," said the Sue with her lip still quivering ever so slightly.

"In order for the audience to care about a back story, they have to care about you as a character, which I assure you, they do not. Now, what do you mean by 'soon'?"

A heavy sob escaped the Sue's chest, but no tears marred her flawless ivory skin. She was far too brave to let the that happen. "They said I wasn't allowed to join and kicked me out. But I will prove them wrong! I will be Galatic Girl, protector of Central City! If I show them my worth as a superhero they would have no choice but to let me join! They'll even make me a founding member!"

The last bit was said in a super perky bubbly voice that made me want to gag on my own vomit and die. "You do realize that Central City already has a protector, the Flash. And it's kind of a little late to be a founding member," I pointed out.

The Sue put her arms on her hips, puffed her chest out, and held her graceful head up high. The gentle breeze blew her golden curls back, along with her cape, showing off her heroic pose. "The Flash is far too busy with League duties that I have decided to aid him in protecting his fair city."

In other words, I noted, Batman and Superman had already kicked her out of theirs. The Sue continued, "The League will be so grateful for my help, they will name me as an honorary founder and statues will be built in every city by citizens whose lives I have touched."

I snorted. Like that was happening anytime soon. Nobody in their right mind would dedicate a monument or statue to a Sue. In fact-

It was for the second time that day that the world around me seemed to pause. I even made that strange choking sound again. I had been so upset over seeing Gertie's remains, that I overlooked** Rule #4:_ Always_ Ignore A Sue**.

****Author's Note****

So that's the first chapter. There is a plot, (complete with twists for those who know me), and I do plan on updating on Mondays. So far I have nine chapters written, with the next couple planned out.

Don't forget to read, enjoy, and review!


	2. The Rules

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**The Rules**

The Rules, were something that my brother, Gary, and I had come up with as children. The Rules guaranteed safety, survival, as long as they were followed. There are five in total. Some are like universal laws that you have no control over, while others are ones that you follow personally.

In a world full of superheroes, anything can happen. Anything. Giant mutant squirrels bent on world domination, E.T. showing up for lunch, an ordinary day at work interrupted by a robot crashing into the building. Anything. Usually such things occurred in the major cities such as Gotham, Metropolis, Central City.

For the most part though, people have accepted and adapted to their situation. We lived in a world with superheroes. Somewhere in another dimension, their lives were the subject of fiction. In return, the reality of that world appeared as fiction in ours, such as that one drama concerning a pair of skyscrapers.

Special insurance was created to deal with the aftermath of superhero fights or incidents. Construction is always a booming business no matter what the state of the economy is. People who don't want to deal with the bustle of the city moved to the suburbs to get away from it. It's kinda why Gotham is in such bad condition (no offense). So many people had moved out over the years, that the ones left were criminals, thugs, and people who were either too stupid or too broke to move.

Of course, the very first rule helped living in a world where anything could happen. Nobody besides me and a few other, probably even call it a rule, but they know it on some sub-conscious level. It proved true when those white alien things attacked a couple years and tried to block out the sun, when the Thangarians wanted to destroy Earth (did the Thangarians read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Because the pretty much ripped off the whole, 'destroying Earth to make way for a super highway'), and when Darkseid tried to attack.

**Rule#1: The good guys always win. Always. There may come a point where it appears that the villain will win, but at the end of the day, the heroes, the good guys, will always win. Always.**

Anyway, I grew up in one of these suburbs that people moved to. It's actually it's own small town. Not too small however, after all, unexplained phenomenon and unusual activity have a tendency to happen in really small towns. Instead, I grew up in a normal household with loving parents, and an annoying older brother.

I liked my safe neighborhood where nothing exciting ever happened. I decided after high school graduation to become an accountant like my father since it was probably a safe profession where nothing ever happened. Not like being in the sciences where one bad experiment could turn you into a superhero, or more likely into some mutant blob thing that superheroes fight. Not like being in the police force dealing with crazies every week that you have no chance of fighting on your own. As far as I could tell, the only trouble I could really get into as an accountant was if I embezzled or committed other illegal acts. Neither of which I plan on doing anytime soon.

Central City wasn't my first choice for college. Unfortunately the town I grew up in was small enough to not have a university of its own. The university at Central City had an excellent accounting program, had offered the most scholarship money, my brother lived there if I needed anything, and was only a couple hours away from home. Sure it has superheroes and villains running around, but they are actually pretty tame compared to Gotham's or Metropolis.

You're probably wondering about the whole, 'safe' thing. I don't like being the center of attention or in the spotlight. When I was in fifth grade, I got to compete in my school spelling bee from my class. I was knocked out in the first round with the word, 'democracy'. I knew how to spell it, but froze on stage with everybody watching me. Eventually I was disqualified since I didn't give a response.

The surest way to stay out of the spotlight? Avoid heroes and villains. Choose a safe job, live in a safe town and lead a quiet life. Obey the Rules. If you don't stand out, nothing horrible or disastrous should happen to you.

Except I had broken **Rule #4: Always Ignore A Sue**.

The unfortunate side-effect of living in a world that others consider as fiction is that Mary Sues have a tendency to pop up from time to time, trying to insert themselves into the world, mainly as a member of the Justice League. For the most part Sues are just super annoying, but they also can be dangerous. They have a tendency to distract people from real threats.

Like that one experiment that involved participants being told to keep an eye on a basketball game and the count the number of times the ball was passed. At the end they were asked about the bear walking in the background. None could recall the bear since they had been so focused on keeping track of the basketball. The same could be applied to Sues. People are so focused on keeping track of them, that they ignore what is going on around them, including actual threats. Plus, Sues had a bad tendency to manipulate reality, causing people to act and do things they wouldn't normally do (mainly guys falling in love with them constantly).

In order to combat Sues, you simply ignore them. It's kinda like common knowledge, like how everybody knows the solution for treating annoying gnats in May and June is by spraying vanilla. That's a good way to think of a Sue, as a common gnat. Sues crave attention, be it positive or negative. In some cases, flames, or negative attention as it's called, actually makes them worse. Being ignored though, is a death sentence to a Sue. They start to question their existence, and slowly fade away until nobody remembers that they had existed in the first place. I had always followed this rule (not that I ever needed it before).

That was until now. Not only had I acknowledged a Sue's presence, but I had also talked to one, and almost let it tell its back story. All because I was so distraught over Gertie. And there was no going back. I had already talked to the Sue, and knowing a Sue's personality, she probably already considered me a friend. Ew.

And it wasn't like I could ignore the Sue now, not when I needed her to pay for Gertie to be repaired or for a new one. Honestly, it was the latter that was more likely. The value of the car was the reason why I didn't have superhero insurance in the first place; the payments were more than Gertie was worth. Despite the manual locks, the fact that the passenger window was always rolling down by itself, that the car was going through a bottle of oil a week, I still loved her, and now Gertie was gone. And the person responsible didn't even have insurance. Just my luck.

I did have one last resort though. It meant skipping the rest of my classes for the day save the physics test. Not to mention my eyesight and nose hating me for a week.

"Come on," I said, taking hold of the Sue's wrist.

"Where are we going?" asked the Sue, her amethyst eyes full of innocence and wonder.

"To a dark and terrible place. My brother's apartment."

****Author's Note****

Much thanks to AwkwardedOut, my only reviewer. Hopefully they'll be more as the story grows.

This chapter was more background, but things will pick up next chapter.

The Rules are based on my observations of Justice League and other shows I've watched over the years. I thought it would be interesting if somebody else noticed them as well. There are five in total, and the others will be revealed throughout the story.

Don't forget to read, enjoy, and review!


	3. Good News, Bad News

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Good News, Bad News**

My brother, Gary, conveniently lived in Central City as well. He had gone to the university, graduated, and worked there. Or at least was beamed up for work there. That's right, beamed. Gary worked at the Watchtower, well most of the time. He was part of the clean-up crew. The politically correct term was "Public Relations" but the staff members, and even members of the League called them the clean-up crew.

They dealed with the aftermath of battles. Cleaning up debris and alien guts, dealing with angry citizens, and filing property claims were just some of Gary's duties. Unlike me, he loved the superhero scene. But since he lacked powers, being a member of the clean-up crew was about as close as he would ever get, which he was fine with. Getting the crap kicked out of him every week was not very high on his to-do list. Granted, cleaning up slime and muck wasn't either, nor was having to deal with people yelling at him for destruction to their property. But each day was a new adventure and sure beat being stuck in a cubicle for a living, even if he had to wear the dorky blue uniform.

In order to be part of the crew, there was an extensive background check an applicant must go through. To make sure they didn't have any villainous tendencies, weren't related to anybody who was a threat to the League, had some kind of work ethic. The usual stuff. One requirement of the job was keeping one's mouth shut about the job. Like Fight Club in a less violent way.

Normally Gary was great at keeping secrets. He had just one weakness. Our mother. In all fairness to Gary, there were probably very few people alive that could keep a secret from our mom, Gina Smith. She isn't a scary woman by any means, actually quite the opposite. She has a friendly smile and air about her. The kind of air that could have a total stranger spilling their life story after just a minute of knowing her. She also has this knack for knowing when she was being lied to, a talent she picked up after being a teacher for so many years (or so she says). It's a common joke in the family that if she ever gave up teaching, the League could hire her as an interrogator.

So when Gary called mom about his new job in "Public Relations" for some unknown company, she knew something was up by the tone of his voice and the fact that he would never take such a job in the first place. Mom never interrogated people, oh no. Instead she invited him home, baked his favorite cookies (snickerdoodle), and let him talk. Eventually, he told her what he was _really_ doing. I had still been living at home at the time, and was eavesdropping, eager to know what Gary was truly up to. My father joined me, joking that if mom and I really knew, he might as well too. Once we found out, we all vowed to keep Gary's secret. As for Gary, he vowed to never tell anyone again and to my knowledge he's kept true to his word.

The reason why I call my brother's apartment a 'dark and terrible place' is due to his lack of cleaning skills. I had visited once as a freshmen, and after that visit, I never went back again. Clothes were all over the floor, there were dirty plates of who-knows-what-food everywhere, there was stuff that was growing in the background and other places, and things I really don't want to think about. I'm not the neatest person, but it was too much for even me to take. Gary was a guy's guy and his apartment smelled like it.

But that day I was willing to brave the dark and disgusting if it meant getting my car fixed. For Gary had recently been promoted to being head of his own clean-up group, and surely he would know some loophole or somebody that did, that covered the damage the Sue did. I was just lucky since it was one of his day's off.

Speaking of the Sue, she didn't even put up a fight as I dragged her the couple blocks to Gary's place. Instead she was bubbly chattering on about what an adventure it would be, and how there was no place dark or terrible enough to scare her. I tuned her out, and instead concentrated on navigating her way through the crowded streets since Maine was still closed.

At one point I when I looked behind me, only to see her golden curls done up in pigtails, making her look even cuter than before. Later when I asked her, she said she had seen the style on a five year-old girl walking down the street with her mom and thought it was like, 'the cutest thing ever!' Just what I needed a Sue that not only changed eye color every couple of minutes, but hairstyles too.

After twenty minutes, we were finally outside my brother's door. A couple knocks later, and my brother opened it. We look so similar that people can tell we're related on the spot. Same wavy dark brown/auburnish hair. Same brown eyes. Same look of indifference on our faces and sarcastic remarks. He had let his hair grown out quite a bit since I had last seen him, giving him the shaggy sheepdog look. Mine was just a bit longer, stopping right before my shoulders. The only real difference was that he was 6'2", just six inches taller than me.

Judging by his hair, he had been sleeping. I felt guilty for waking him up on his day off, then shook it off quickly. One of the perks of being a younger sibling was being able to annoy the older and get away with it.

Realizing it was me at the door he said, "You do realize what time it is, right?"

"You do realize I really don't care, right?" I retorted.

Gary, used to the banter, shrugged and opened the door. "Welcome to my humble abode."

I stepped in, pulling the Sue in behind me and gasped. The place was clean. Not sparkling clean by any means, but clean for Gary. No clothes, no food, no trash, no cardboard pizza boxes. It was quite an accomplishment really. And there could only be one person responsible.

"Nikki moved in, didn't she?"

Nikki was Gary's long time girlfriend. Like him, she was a member of the clean-up crew. Nikki had one specific talent that set her apart from her coworkers, she had a power. Nothing enough to warrant being a full League member, but enough to get their attention. Nikki could put things back to the way they were, before being damaged. It helped cut down on cost, and was much faster than picking up debris in some cases. One drawback was that she had to have every piece of the structure or item there. Otherwise it wouldn't work completely. Another was that it took a lot of energy doing so, the bigger the item, the more it cost. In some instances she would be out for days after a job. As a result, the League had her use her power sparingly, only when it was absolutely needed.

"It's not possible that I cleaned on my own? Wait," Gary said, finally taking notice of the person that I had been dragging. "Is that a.."

"Sue," I finished for him. "Yes, yes it is. And I know it's against The Rules, but it's kinda of hard to ignore the person that crashes into your car."

Before I could get a chance to elaborate, Nikki entered the room. "I heard my name being called," she said and sat on the couch next to Gary.

Going so long without being the center of attention must be grating on a Sue. So, the Sue stepped forward and bowed. "Ohio! It is nice to meet you Nikki-san, you so kawaii, ja ne!" The Sue was quite pleased with herself, she had been thoughtful enough to greet Nikki in her own language which the Sue of course spoke flawlessly. Or thought she did.

Gary and I both winced, we knew what was coming next. Nikki was a second generation American born Chinese. She hated it when people assumed things about her ethnicity because she simply looked Asian.

She stood up and faced the Sue, who was smiling her gorgeous smile, blissfully unaware about what was about to happen next. Nikki smiled back. Then said, "First, use a dictionary before you start trying to talk in Japanese. Second, just because I look Asian, doesn't mean I speak a foreign language. Gary here has German ancestry, does that mean I assume that he speaks German as well? Hell no! Also, for the record, I'm Chinese, not Japanese! Totally different cultures and languages. And I don't even like soy sauce or egg rolls for that matter!"

The Sue's amber orbs began filling up with tears again. She didn't understand why people were so mean to her, she was just trying to be nice (at least that's what I assumed happen).

Nikki then turned her attention to Gary and me. "Was she dropped on her head or something as a baby?"

"It's possible, she is a Sue," I admitted.

"A Sue?" repeated Nikki.

I nodded. "Before... well, this morning I was in a coffee shop trying to get a drink, when I heard a loud crash, and there she was having landed on Gertie. Gertie's in ruins, and I was wondering if there was anything the League could do to pay for repairs."

Gary sighed. "That sucks, Sis. But you know the rules, the League is not liable for Sues or any damage they cause."

"What was she even doing, to crash into your car?" asked Nikki.

Now that the attention was back on the Sue again, she was more than happy to respond. Making sure that everybody was listening she began. "The meanies at the League wouldn't let me be a member, so I decided to prove myself, as all heroes must do at some point in their journey. I was fighting a giant evil robot when he actually hit me. Luckily her car cushioned my fall, and I have a healing ability."

Gary looked at me once the Sue was done. "Yep, definitely not covered, especially since the League wouldn't even consider letting her join."

"Meanies," sniffed the Sue, her topaz eyes shining in the poorly lit room.

"Nikki, is there anything you could do?" I asked, referring to Nikki's ability.

"Give me a couple days and I can try. I'm still tapped out from the other day when the League had me restore a three story building that collapsed with some people still in it. And by now it's probably in the junk yard, and it's unlikely that it has all its parts by now. You know how fast the crew works."

"I thought they don't handle Sue cases," I said, repeating Gary's words in a sarcastic tone.

"I never said that. I just said we are not liable for their damage, as in, we won't pay out for it. That doesn't mean we'll just let the wreckage they cause sit around to hurt some civilian," Gary pointed out.

Sensing that she was being talked about in a bad light, the Sue decided once again to speak up. "I am not a Sue!" she vehemently denied. "My name is Marianna Aurora Rhea Yew Sapphire Utopia Earthchild. I am Galactic Girl, protector of the universe!"

Nikki, Gary, and I just looked at each other, all thinking the same thing: yep, definitely a Sue.

"Are you sure there's nothing you can do?" I pleaded.

"There is one thing..." murmured Gary.

Nikki rolled her eyes. "But it's impossible."

"I'll try anything at this point," I said desperately.

"Help her join the League." Seeing my dumbfounded expression, Gary elaborated. "Look, the reason they wouldn't let her join is because she's a Sue. Work with her on that, and if she actually turns out to be a legit character that's not a Sue, they'll let her join. By then, I'll have found some loophole that will let me file your claim."

I bit my lower lip. Help her not be a Sue? Was that even possible? I had certainly never heard of it. Then again, I had never really paid that much attention to Sues before.

"I like that idea!" said the Sue, jumping up and down in excitement. "I want to join the League, even if they are a bunch of meanies! I want to help people and save the world! Please say yes! Please say yes!"

Groaning, I realized that I was in a bind. Gertie needed to be fix. The only way to do so was to help the Sue join the League. "Yes," I finally said quietly, immediately regretting it after being wrapped in a huge bear hug by the Sue.

"Can't breathe...super strength," I gasped.

"Yay! I get to be part of the League!" the Sue squealed in excitement as she finally let go of me. In the background a couple of Gary's glasses broke from the high pitch noise. I made a mental note to get him some new plastic or ceramic ones. Once I had money of course.

That's when I was hit with a very scary thought. There was a very high probability that the Sue had no place to live, and would end up living with me. How the hell was I going to explain her to Stuart and the others?

****Author's Note****

And so the plot finally moves forward. Next chapter will introduce 'Stuart and the others' and Suzy will finally get to her physics test.

Thanks goes to Loki's Son for reviewing last chapter. Not getting a lot of reviews leaves me unsure of what people think of the story, but the fact that a couple people have already favorited the story or put it on alert makes me feel a bit better.

As for the clean-up crew, I've always wondered how the League deals with the aftermath of battles, and who would pay for the reconstruction. The clean-up crew is my solution, and was an idea I had been messing with for a while, before being able to include it in this fic. The same goes for Nikki's power, which I always thought would be a rather handy power to have.

Anyways, don't forget to read, enjoy, and review!


	4. The Perks of Living With a Sue

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**The Perks of Living With a Sue**

I'll spare you the conversation that followed with the Sue. No need to kill useful brain cells. But after about fifteen minutes of picking apart her Sueish language (basically her constantly insisting that she was _not_ a Sue), I managed to establish that the Sue had no place to live, no belongings, no identification. Whatever thirteen year-old girl that had created her, had no sense of what a person really needed to survive.

After some long deliberation, I decided the best course of action really was to take her back to my place. Stupid and dangerous, but I figured it would be best to have her nearby where I could keep an eye on her. Like that line about keeping friends close, but enemies closer.

The apartment is a four-bedroom one floor layout, designed for college students. Each bedroom included a full bath and walk-in closet, while the kitchen, laundry room, and living room were all shared. Much nicer than the itty bitty room I lived in on campus for two years. I live there with my three, well two, roommates.

One is my boyfriend, Stuart. He's studying to be a mechanical engineer. Another is Eugene, a friend of Stuart's from engineering. He usually spends so much time in his room, he could be plotting world domination for all I know. The last is Sara. She really doesn't live at the apartment, more like, her parents pay the rent and she lets them think she's living there. She's a party girl and instead lives with her boyfriend, a musician in some local band. As soon as her parents left on move-in day, she was repacking everything and carrying it to her boyfriend's place.

Anyway, it was Sara's room I was going to give the Sue. The key was in a drawer in the kitchen. Sara was afraid that she would lose it (knowing her she would), and left it there till she was suppose to 'move-out'. Very convenient, yes. Things are always convenient for Sues.

Then a thought occurred to me.

"You need a name," I said as we entered the apartment.

"Oh, but I do have a name. It's Marianna Aurora Rhea-"

"No," I said, cutting her off. "A real name. An unSue name."

Her aqua orbs were filled with doubt. In her mind, her name was a particularly fine name and there was nothing Sue-like about her.

I continued, "Look, you want to be a member of the Justice League, right?"

Her golden curls on her beautiful face bobbed up and down.

"Well, they're not going to let you in with a Sue name." That and I had to stop myself from calling her 'The Sue'. It would only make a bad situation worse. "So, your first name is Marianna, why don't we shorten it, to Mary?"

"Mary is such an ordinary name, and I'm far from ordinary." You got that right, I thought. She started to clap her deft hands together excitedly. "I know! What about Annie, like the cute little orphan in that one movie? I"m an orphan too you know. Many years-"

"Annie's good," I said before she could launch into her back story. "Annie's great in fact. Just so you know, now that you have a name, it would be best not to go around announcing it to everybody like you earlier today. Super-heroes have secret identities for a reason."

She cutely giggled again. Cutely giggled? The sooner she stops being a Sue the better. I didn't know how many more superfluous adjectives I could take. "My lips are sealed," and to make it official, she made the motion of zipping her lips.

I thought briefly about grabbing the nearest kitchen knife to slit my throat. Then again I like being alive, and I'm pretty sure no jury would convict me for killing a Sue. They would probably give me a medal. Saving me from the dilemma, was Stuart. He had apparently just finished his classes for the day.

Confused as to what I was doing home so early since my classes were far from over, he asked, "What's going on Suzy Q, decided to skip class for the day?"

By this point, three hours had passed since the morning's incident. I had a little less than an hour to get campus for my test. And with Gertie out of commission, I would have to take the bus. Stuart rode his bike each day to class, otherwise I would have asked him for a ride.

"This morning I was in line at the coffee shop, when she," I said and pointed in the Sue's direction, I mean Annie's direction, "landed on Gertie. She's not an offical member of the League, but according to Gary if I help her become less Sue-like and become a member, there's some insurance loophole he can use to help pay for Gertie. I brought her home and figured she could live in Sara's room. Now I have to take the bus to get to my physics test, and could you watch her while I'm gone? Make sure she doesn't burn the apartment down or something?"

I said all of that without hardly taking a breath of air. Stuart just laughed. "You always were the lost puppy type."

I stuck out my tongue at him while I walked out the door. He was right though, I was the type to bring home a lost puppy and beg to keep it. Actually, it was a good analogy for a Sue. Both are wide-eyed and innocent, cause people to fawn over them, and required a leash and looking after. The only difference being that people were more apt to want a puppy instead of a Sue.

* * *

Well, going to my physics test turned out to be bad and good. Good because I caught somebody who was in biology with me, and learned that I didn't miss anything important. Bad because I would have been better off not studying for physics. The test sucked, and I would have gotten a good night's sleep, not needed coffee, and Gertie wouldn't be ruined right now. Oh the irony.

The teacher is rather fond of creating his own problems that are much harder than any homework he assigns. Plus he's just a sucky teacher in general. Stuart tried to help me once, but his physic classes dealt with solving problems through using calculus, while mine focused on algebra. Didn't help, but as I mentioned earlier, physics doesn't even work like it's suppose to.

**Rule #3: The laws of physics will bend for super-heroes. Stunts that would normally not work, do. Powerless people should be advised to duplicate the stunts at their own risk.**

When I got back to my apartment, I saw no police car, no fire trucks. A very good sign. I opened the door tentatively, afraid of what I might find inside. For a second, I thought I was in the wrong place. My apartment was by no means dirty, but it wasn't picked up regularly either. The apartment that greeted me was clean. All the recyclables that were stacked up were gone, the counters shined, the dishes were done, the tables dusted, and it smelled liked roses. Roses, and cookies, and pot roast... it reminded me of home.

"Oh hi Suzy," greeted a familiar perky voice. "While you were gone, I cleaned my room and then wanted to change clothes. Except I couldn't find any, so I used some of yours. Then I noticed your laundry needed to be done, and while I was putting the clothes in I noticed all the stuff on the counter. Once I saw the condition of the counters I just had to clean them. By then you still weren't home, so I decided to make dinner. Stuart said I could."

The first thing I realized, was that she had actually called me by my name. The second was that I had forgotten she had still been running around in her costume. At first I was miffed that she decided to wear my clothes, but then noticed what she was wearing. My mother means well, but occasionally she'll buy stuff that just doesn't fit right, and would get shoved to the back of my closet. On the Sue, no Annie, they looked fantastic. Unlike me she was big then small in all the right areas. Finally I realized that she was expecting a reply.

"Dinner sounds great," I said, suddenly realized I hadn't had much to eat all day with everything that had happened. This seemed to please her greatly, and she went to check on dinner. Seeing Stuart on the couch, I plopped down next to him.

"She may be against the rules Suzy Q, but I for one could get use to this."

I nodded my head as he put his arm around me and we started watching the news. All of a sudden being practically perfect in every way didn't sound that bad. Especially when it included cleaning and cooking. Maybe living with a Sue wouldn't be so bad.

****Author's Note****

I feel so special, I got THREE reviews last chapter. Looks like things are picking up. So a huge thanks goes out to Loki's Son, fencingfan, and AwkwardedOut for all being kind enough to leave a review. Hopefully they won't be the only ones.

Next chapter you get to see Nikki's powers in action, and the beginning of Annie's unSue lessons.

Don't forget to read, enjoy, and review!


	5. Gertie Has a Cold

I do not own the rights to the Justice League. Or Toy Story.

**Gertie has a Cold**

A couple days later and it was the weekend. In those couple days nothing much happened. I got my physics test back. I had a 5/10 which was good since the class average was a 4/10.

As for Annie... well she didn't undergo any significant character development. Since Stuart and I had class, we were faced with leaving Annie by herself. It was scary, like leaving a little kid home alone for the first time. Who knows what trouble she would get into unsupervised. Worried about what she might do, we dropped her off at nearby daycare saying that she was a special need's child, which considering how she acted wasn't that hard to believe. Not my proudest moment, but at least she was looked after. At first I was worried about paying, but upon picking her up after that first day I learned she had gone on a cleaning and cooking spree there as well. She also managed to prove as great entertainment for the kids. In exchange for her help, the couple managing the center would watch her for free.

That Saturday was a different story. Friday night I had gotten a call from Nikki who said that she was up for trying to restore Gertie. Gary was kind enough to let me know which junk yard it got dropped off at. I had received a notice in the mail, but Gary's information was more valuable since it actually detailed what part of the yard Gertie was located.

* * *

That day Annie, Gary, Nikki, and I gathered at the junk yard. Stuart was off with some robotics club and Eugene was still sticking to his room at that point.

"Geez, Suzy, it looks like Giganta decided to use your car as a chair," commented Gary once he saw Gertie's remains. Noticing my frown he added, "No offense."

Nikki elbowed him. "We've seen worse. At least you can tell it used to be a car."

"I don't see what the big deal is. I can remember it in minute detail what it looked like before I landed and it didn't look that great. That's why I choose it instead of the cute slug bug," Annie laughed, the sound of bells filling the air.

If it wasn't for the fact that I needed Annie to be a member of the League if Nikki failed to restore Gertie, I would have taken Annie out there and then. Since I couldn't do that, I slapped her instead.

She cradled her cheek gently in her hand, while tears threatened to cloud her scarlet eyes. "Why did you hit me?"

"So you would know how Gertie felt when you crushed her," I said satisfied. Normally I'm not that much of a violent person, but ever since Wednesday I had been suppressing the urge to strangle Annie. And that little comment was enough to cause me to snap.

Gary and Nikki just took it in stride, and tried to hide their snickering. "Alright children, don't make me separate you," joked Gary.

"But she hit me!" said Annie earnestly, not understanding why they weren't more upset. Somebody had slapped her! They should be imprisoned for such a crime!

Now, Annie never actually said any of that, but it wasn't hard to infer what she was thinking. She was still a Sue after all, and the thought of anybody disliking them was impossible.

Acting like nothing much had just happened, Nikki said, "You deserved it. Now back up kiddies, and let Nikki do her thing."

Nikki pushed back her sleeves and held out her hands in front of her, like she was about to push somebody away. At first nothing happened, but the pile that was formally Gertie began to rattle and shake. It started to expand and the metal groaned. The hunks of metal uncrumpled, straightening themselves out; bits of glass flew back into their respective places like they had never been gone; dents smoothed over and popped out; tires reinflated raising the car to it's proper height. It was like watching somebody press rewind on a video.

Except not really. Just when I dared to hope that everything would go back to normal, Gertie gave a shudder and suddenly fell apart. The pieces were still perfectly intact, they were just no longer connected to each other and were spread out on the ground instead.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Yeah, I specifically made sure the guys working went back to collect any pieces they may have left behind," said a confused Gary.

I was actually a little touched. Usually makes fun of me for getting attached to my belongings. I saw Toy Story when I was five, and it made me convinced my toys were alive too. For the longest time I couldn't give any away (Toy Story 2 did not help), and had to spend equal time with all of them. Anyway, my affection for my toys spilled over to affection for my car. I named her, wouldn't let anybody besides me drive her, and made sure she was always trash free and clean. This clashed with my brother's philosophy of the the dirtier the better, which always left his SUV crusted in mud from off roading, and floor covered in fast food wrappers. So the fact that he cared enough to ensure all the pieces of Gertie were there for Nikki, spoke volumes.

In the end that didn't matter according to Nikki. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but the Sue was right Suzy. Your car was crap and just waiting to die. The only thing she did was put it out of it's misery."

Annie beamed. Great, just what her ego needed, to be told she was right.

"Gertie wasn't crap," I insisted. "She was... unique."

Nikki turned to me. "When you have a cold, doctors give you medicine to make you feel better, right? But it doesn't actually treat the cold, just the symptoms. If you don't take it regularly, they'll just return. The same went for Gertie. I restored her, but she was in such bad shape already, that I just treated the symptoms, not the cause. That's why she fell apart as soon as I was done."

"Are you saying my car has a cold?"

Gary grinned. "That would be your luck." The dirty look Nikki gave him shut his mouth before he could say more.

"Look, have you noticed anything different about Gertie in the past couple months?"

I was about to say no, when I thought about it. Over the past couple months she had been going through motor oil much faster than before. The air conditioner had quit, the mile per hour gauge no longer worked (when I told Stuart later, he said that it technically a speedometer), the window controls were shot, you had to hit the radio to get it to play, and she was making strange noises. But she still ran fine. Mostly.

"So that's it then? There's nothing you can do?" A lump started to develop in my throat, cracking my voice. I had been meaning to get in Gertie to a shop to be looked at, or ask Stuart, but I hadn't had the time to do so.

"We could still compensate you. If you get her to join the League," suggested Gary. He then wrapped me in a comforting hug. It was a really touching moment between me and my brother. Even Nikki was quiet and misty eyed. Then the Sue ruined it.

"I don't get it, how can a car have a cold?"

If I was living in an anime I would have totally face palmed myself just then.

* * *

Since Gertie was officially off to the big scrap yard in the sky, I was still left without transportation. The bus is fine and all, but having to depend on it constantly is troublesome. Especially if I need to go someplace it doesn't, or not within the hours of operation. Annie offered to fly me around, but since I didn't quite feel up to trusting her. I may not be that good at physics, but it doesn't take a genius to calculate what would happened if she accidentally dropped me several hundred feet above the earth. Despite what I might say sometimes, I am rather fond of living.

Anyway, there's just something about having your own vehicle, knowing you can go anywhere whenever you want. That you are not dependent on anybody else. It's a great feeling and I missed it terribly.

Nikki and Gary dropped Annie and me off at the apartment. Stuart was at the library studying, and Eugene was in his room. The usual. Because it was just the two of us, I thought it would be a good idea to start her unSue lessons. I came to this conclusion after the realization that I didn't have money to spare for a new car. My parents were helping with college, but I was still using my savings for rent. Ergo, helping the Sue was my golden ticket to a Gertie 2.0. And the sooner we started, the better.

"To start, um... what are your powers exactly?" I asked.

"I can fly, heal fast, have super strength, heat vision, an IQ that rivals Batman's, can communicate with animals, turn invisible, have super speed, breathe underwater, control the weather, have super vision, super hearing, super tasting, telepathy, telekinesis, x-ray vision, can speak every language, change my appearance, have techopathy, can acquire other hero's powers, can control water and other elements, do magic, know every form of martial arts, and don't get brain freezes."

"Okay..."

I had only seen her display strength (from destroying Gertie) and a healing ability (from recovering from destroying Gertie), but wasn't that surprised at her other powers. Sues did have the tendency to whip out a power without any previous mention when it was needed. I did wonder if she really had a brain to freeze though. Or Batman's IQ. If that was the case, then the League was in some serious trouble.

Then she added, "I'm also half Thanagarian, half Kryptonian, half Martian, half Amazon, half elf, half fairy, and half unicorn."

I blinked at her. Apparently one thing she couldn't do was math.

"And weakness?"

"I don't have any weaknesses, silly."

I would beg to differ on that point. But I don't think being a Sue necessarily counts as a weakness, or at least as a weakness for heroes.

"You have to have a weakness. Even Superman has kryptonite," I pointed out. "Also, you need to narrow down your powers. I mean, all those powers and no weaknesses just scream Sue. Not to mention all those halves mean that there are technically four of you." Which I really hoped wasn't the case, but wouldn't put it pass her.

"But I'm not a Sue! I'm Galatic Girl! How dare you say that I have too many powers! You're just jealous of my beauty and powers!"

Evidently, this was going to take a while. I took a deep breathe in and began again, channeling Woody a bit. "You are a SUE! You were created by a thirteen year-old girl as the perfect embodiment of herself! I'm not jealous of you, you annoy me since you're unrealistic! The sooner you accept this the better!" I then said in a calmer voice, "But if we narrow down your powers, discover your weakness, and work on your look, you won't be a Sue any longer. You'll actually be human, and a member of the League."

At first, she seemed infuriated that I insulted her. Then as I started with the second part of my rant, she seemed to calm down, contemplating something, if that was at all possible.

"What should I do first?"

****Author's Note****

First a huge thanks to all my awesome reviewers, Loki's Son, Jana Girl123, Guardian of the Crest, and fencingfan. Reading them makes my day. I know this story is original and doesn't focus solely on the League, so thanks for sticking with me.

For those interested, one of my friends has drawn a pic of Suzy and Annie which is now up on deviantart. If interested, go to my profile for a link, or search for ~mondays~noon. Suzy turned out nice, and Annie looks dazed and starry-eyed, which goes with her character.

Next chapter Suzy starts seeing some results from the unSue lessons, and another rule is revealed.

I had a lot of fun coming up with all of Annie's powers. I know I missed some, but I tried to include all the ones I could think of. Same goes for all the halves, especially half unicorn.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!


	6. Shopping With a Sue

I do not own the rights to Justice League.

**Shopping With a Sue**

That's when her unSue lessons began. We would spend about an hour or so each day on them. Most of the time it was me rambling on about her Sue qualities, and what being a member of the League actually entails (or what I think it entails based on info from Gary and Nikki). Whether or not anything I said sunk in, I had no idea. At least not until Wednesday, an exact week after everything had started.

It happened after dinner, which was made by Annie (steak, potatoes, rolls and red velvet cake). She had been cooking ever since moving in, and it tasted delicious. Every bite was like eating a piece of heaven. Even Eugene was starting to come out of his room to join, lured by the smell. I had seen more of him that week, than I had the entire month before. That night it was the three of us since Stuart was off with his robotics club. Annie said suddenly, out of the blue, "Can I have a job?"

"Wha?" I asked, my mouth still full with cake.

"I want a job so I can have money for my own things. You're running out of clothes that fit me, and I want to explore my culinary talents."

Swallowing the cake (did I mention how awesome it tasted?), I considered the sudden desire in my head, and found I actually approved. For starters, she actually asked before going out and finding one. This meant she recognized that I had some authority over her. Good.

Also, instead of deciding to get a job and announcing it after the fact, she showed that she's starting thinking about other people, and asked. We had a long discussion about that the past week, when she kept borrowing things of mine without asking (my clothes, my towels, my body wash, my deodorant, my sheets, my toothbrush) and it's nice to know that some of it sunk in.

She also recognized that I wasn't made of money, and couldn't keep funding her expensive cooking habit. I'm used to eating PBJ sandwiches, ramen, and leftover pizza. Not steak and lobster every night. Actually, so far her Sueness had helped somewhat for groceries since she kept coming home with amazing bargains, or stuff people had given her for free. But if she was going to stop being a Sue, she would need to get a job like real people have to.

"What'd you have in mind?" asked Eugene. I was a bit in shock, since when did Eugene care about people besides himself? Oh wait, she was a Sue. Making guys acting in ways they normally wouldn't. I had once asked Stuart and Gary why they didn't fawn over her, and both said the same thing: she was gorgeous, but in a creepy, Valley of the Dolls kinda way, and their girlfriends would kill them. Nikki and I approved of their answers.

"Well, I've had a couple offers to be a maid from the daycare from couples who've noticed the work I've been doing there."

I nodded my head, sounded like it could be a good deal. Might as well make money off of her Sueness. Then something occurred to me, "Wait, in order to have a job, you need paperwork, identification, a bank account. None of which you have."

"Don't worry Annie, I can take care of all that," Eugene chimed in. Chimed? Yep, he had fallen under her Sue-spell. Oh well, better him than Stuart. I already lost my car to her, I didn't need to lose my boyfriend as well. Wait, what did he mean by saying he could take care of it? Maybe he really was plotting world domination in his room...

Tossing the thought aside, I decided that Annie should be rewarded for taking her first steps to stop being a Sue. "Tell you what, since you're getting a job, we'll go shopping this weekend for clothes and stuff." Like her own toothbrush for starters.

* * *

So she got a job as a maid at some people's houses during the day. Eugene somehow got her a checking account and ID's. How, I didn't ask.

That weekend we went shopping. It was meh. There's nothing like watching somebody with the perfect body try on outfit after outfit with each fitting said perfect body perfectly. And of course every single outfit was on sale as well. Like I said, meh.

But the shopping itself wasn't that important (although I did manage to ensure she got five toothbrushes, and plenty of her own body wash and deodorant so she would stop using mine). What was important was what happened after we were done shopping.

Seeing how neither of us had a car or had access to one, we had to take the bus instead. The nice thing about having a Sue? She has super strength and super balance and can hold all her bags, which trust me, were a lot. Not only had she bought clothes and personnel items, she had also deemed our kitchen inadequate of supplies, so she had a couple bags for the kitchen, and food as well. I had found a couple tops that fit well, and some other random stuff when all of a sudden, Annie dropped her bags, and stood up.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, looking in the direction she was, but seeing nothing, but houses and streets instead.

"There's something going, in the distance... I should go help," she answered dreamily.

"Wait," I said stopping her. "What is it exactly?"

Her mystical turquoise eyes looked far off into the distance narrowing in on something. "It's some sort, of glowing object. I should go check it out."

"Hold it. Rule number five."

"Rule number five?" By this point she was a bit acquainted with my rules, but still not all of them.

"Rule number five," I confirmed. "Never go toward a glowing object, black hole, portal, or any other device whose origins are unknown or suspicious. It could turn out to be harmless, but will more likely be something dangerous. Also, if a huge crowd of people start coming at you, running away from something, don't ask questions, just go with the flow."

"That's a stupid rule. I'm a hero, and as a hero I have to help," she said, rolling her opaque eyes. Opaque? Creepy.

"Look, you're not a hero yet. And even if you were, you don't have to play hero all the time."

She started arguing with me. "How can you say that? If people are in danger it is our duty to help them!"

"Yeah, except sometimes, you're hurting, not helping them." She stared at me doubtfully with her golden eyes. Yeah, the weird color changes annoy me too. I continued, "If I see a house on fire, I'm not going to go rush in. Instead I'm going to call the proper authorities. I don't have the training, nor the proper equipment to deal with the fire. Chances are I'll probably just end up hurting myself, taking attention away from the people who actually need it. So why it's a good idea in theory to be a hero, in practice, not so much. Instead it's better to contact people whose job it is to deal with the situation and are trained to do so. Look, the Justice League already has members dealing with the situation," I said, pointing out the figures flying in the sky. And judging by the huge breeze and blur of red that just passed in front me, the Flash was on his way as well.

Annie sighed and sat back down on the bench. "Am I ever going to be a hero? I mean, this would be the perfect opportunity to prove myself."

"No," I corrected, "It would be the perfect opportunity for you to get in the way and prove what a nuisance you are to them."

When we got... go...

* * *

I had been talking for so long, that my throat was bone dry, I could barely swallow. Sensing what the problem was, Batman left the room, hopefully to return with some water.

I looked at my watch and saw that over an hour had gone by already. It really didn't seem like that long. Batman was a surprisingly good sport through it all so far. He hardly interrupted, just occasionally like when he wanted me to explain about the Rules. He even tolerated my random sarcastic commentary on stuff.

Like I predicted, he returned with a jug of water. It was on a tray, along with a glass, and even a sandwich. Maybe Batman wasn't so horrible after all. Or maybe he was drugging me with truth serum. Or softening me up for further interrogation. Either way I didn't care. I gulped down the water greedily, and inhaled the sandwich while Batman just looked on. He was probably in shock of what a pig I was.

In less than three minutes I was done.

"Better?" he asked.

"Much. Now, where was I?"

****Author's Note****

Thanks go to Loki's Son, A Grateful FF Writer, Jana Girl123, Autaumn Wolf, SparklingMoonlight1, and Trickster91 for reviews. Six reviews for one chapter makes me feel so loved. Reviews are always appreciated, but I honestly didn't expect so many at once, so keep them coming. Also, if you leave a signed review, I will respond.

A Grateful FF Writer: Thanks for the review. All the ideas and snark come my from experience of reading fics with Mary Sues, some intentional, and some not. The ones that make me laugh the most are the ones were the authors keep denying the character is a Sue, when it very clearly is. You're also right that unSueification is a lesson every writer has to learn. Looking back, most of my early stories contained Sues, but as I got older, my writing got better. Thankfully I never posted any of those stories, but I still wouldn't be writing like I am today, if I didn't start somewhere.

Due to all the positive reviews, in the past couple weeks, two things have happened. The first being I finished the story. I knew what was going to happen, but just hadn't actually gotten around to writing the end. This chapter is officially the half-way point, and besides some minor editing for each chapter, the story is done.

The second is that I've gone and done a very bad thing. I've started on a sequel. It's bad because I'm also in the process of writing two other stories, and dealing with my senior year of college. I already had a basic idea that I was toying with, but decided to wait and see how the first story did before starting another. And with all the positive reviews, plus a sudden moment of inspiration, I started this weekend and now have three chapters. Ideally, I'll have enough of it done to start posting once this story ends.

Also, are you guys interested in a sequel? Since the main point of this story was deSueing a Sue, the next is going to feature less of Annie's Sue traits. Obviously I can't say too much without giving spoilers away for this one, but the sequel will allow me to explore some ideas I briefly touched on in this story such as a Sue's origins, and the relationship between Suzy's world and ours.

Finally, I included the little bit at the end as a reminder that Suzy is being interviewed (or interrogated depending on your view) by Batman for a reason. So far all the chapters have slowly been leading up to the reason why Suzy is being interviewed in the first place.


	7. Never Glomp a Lion

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Never Glomp a Lion**

Let's see... oh yes, the bus came, and we went back to the apartment. I started homework, and she started making something that smelled delicious. Just another blah day. And the next day was blah. And the next. Well, you get the point.

I guess the next relevant thing that happened was... um... about two weeks later? Yeah, it was the first week of October. I remember because that's when Annie decided she wanted to go to the Central City Zoo. In order to attract people since their summer season was over, they had a reduced admission and Annie had seen the commercials for the price cut on TV. We had just watched The Lion King and she wanted to go see a real lion. Apparently she didn't quite understand that lions weren't as cute and fluffy in the real world, and they certainly didn't burst randomly into song, but who was I to ruin her dream?

"I want to see the lions and bears and penguins and unicorns..." she rattled off happily, as we entered the zoo.

"I don't think there are unicorns at the zoo," murmured Eugene. Even Eugene had joined Stuart, Annie, and me on the visit to the zoo. He claimed he liked monkeys, but Stuart and I knew what he really liked was Annie.

Stuart grinned. "Let's not ruin the fun for her." I smiled. It was nice actually having him to myself for the weekend, since he was usually busy with his clubs or homework, or I was busy with Annie and my own homework. I really wasn't that involved with clubs on campus, mainly because the ones that were related to my major bored me, and the rest had people that were just too cliquey for my taste.

We first stopped by the aquarium where Stuart and I kept telling Annie to 'find Nemo' among all the tanks. At one point she even asked a staff member for help. Used to this question from younger patrons, he politely told her the well rehearsed excuse that Nemo had been returned to his father on the reef.

After we went to the monkey house, they went to the reptile house (I say they because there was no way I was going to step in there anytime soon). Then we saw a bird show, had lunch, and finally visited the area with elephants, zebras... and the lions. It was an open area, letting the animals roam freely. There were hidden fences and sensors to keep them from wandering out though, and they were more aesthetically pleasing than iron bars and cages.

"Look! Look!" exclaimed Annie excitedly, peering off into the distance. "I see lions in the distance! And there are even cute little cubs!" And then she was gone. One minute she was clapping her hands excitedly next to me, and the next she was off and climbing over the gate.

"Don't you think we should have stopped her?" asked Eugene, as we watched her disappear from sight.

"Nah. Let her learn the hard way you shouldn't glomp a lion," I answered casually.

"Besides, she wouldn't have listened anyway," added Stuart.

* * *

A half hour later, Stuart, Eugene and I were sitting on a bench eating ice cream when we finally saw a figure in the distance. As the figure got closer, it became clearer that it was Annie. Except, not. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were torn. I suppose if it wasn't for her healing ability she would have been cut up and bleeding as well. Once she spotted us, she started to sob, "Lions are not as cute and cuddly in person like they are in the movies."

"Good. Now would you like a balloon and some ice cream?" I replied. Her face lit up like Christmas lights. She really could be so easy to please and distract sometimes, like a little kid almost.

Actually that was an accurate comparison. The week before the zoo incident, I had caught her talking randomly to a new neighbor, Roy Parker, or something. It's not that I don't approve of Annie meeting new people, it's just nobody in the apartment complex actually socialize with each other. Seriously, in the entire time I've lived there, I've never met my neighbors. So for a neighbor (a guy no less) to approach Annie, who has a tendency to be naive, probably meant that he was up to no good. Something that I had to remind her, as we walked away. But that's off topic.

Back to the story. Besides ice cream and a balloon, she had also gotten some new clothes since people kept giving us weird looks since Annie looked like she had just been mauled by lions. Which, technically was what had happened, but after explaining five times that she was fine, we insisted that Annie buy herself some new clothes at one of the little gift shops. It was actually a dress with safari themed print that Annie insisted was just too cute! (Gag). She also bought a stuffed lion cub which she deemed much safer than real ones. After everything that had happened I would have avoided lions like the plague, but once again, who was I to tell her what to buy when she was paying?

From there, security found us, and promptly escorted us off the premises, with a stern warning that Annie would be banned from returning if she pulled a stunt like that again. She really didn't understand what was so wrong until Eugene pointed out she should have died, and the zoo didn't feel like dealing with the bad press or legal issues if a patron died due to being attacked by the animals.

* * *

After leaving we took the bus back, ordered pizza, and settled back into our routines. I worked on physics homework while Stuart answered my questions and worked on his own, Eugene retreated to his room, and Annie was... doing whatever she does for fun.

It would have been another boring night if it wasn't for the TV being on. Stuart and I like it for background noise mainly, and it was on a local station. At around six o'clock, the local news came on, and like usual we ignored it. Well, Stuart and I did, Annie watched, trying to keep up with current events and any news on the League.

You see, that night that one reporter, Linda Park I think, teased a story about the Flash. The channel showed footage about him appearing to have been blown up, or something like that. Then they went to commercial before properly explaining it.

This upset Annie greatly. "The Flash can't be dead! I'm not ready to defend Central City by myself! We haven't finished my lessons!"

I stopped working on my problem and looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

"The news! The news showed an image of the Flash being crushed to death!" she said, pointing frantically at the TV.

I rolled my eyes. "Rule number two: Heroes (or villains for that matter) never die. It may appear that they are gone, but they will come back, eventually. Just like how a villain is never completed defeated, or will inevitably escape from prison."

"Really?" she sniffed, looking at me with her puppy dog eyes.

"Really," I said assuring her. "Look, a couple years, everybody thought Superman was dead after a fight with Toyman. Did I? No. I knew he wasn't dead and would come back, which he did, several months later. So the Flash isn't dead either. Besides, if he really was, they'd be making a bigger deal about it, and people would be out in the streets."

Just then, the program returned, and this time I actually paid attention. Sure enough there was a clip of the Flash appearing to be crushed by a giant metallic foot. The next shot showed the Flash on the other side of the screen, safe and sound.

"See? Alive. The Rules never fail." The doorbell rang, and Stuart went to get the door.

Annie's forehead wrinkled and she started to say, "That's weird, that's-"

I didn't hear the last thing she said. I was too busy looking at who was at the door. Sara.

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to Loki's Son, Jana Girl123, and Autaumn Wolf for reviews. Three is less than six, but still much better than none at all. Also, if you leave a signed review, I will respond.

Next chapter is a bit of a fluff chapter, but some important things are mentioned that will make sense later, like several things in this chapter.

This is one of my favorite chapters, mainly because I got to use the line, 'never glomp a lion' and have it make sense.

On the Sara note, Sara is the roommate who's room was conveniently vacant for Annie to have. Upon starting this fic, I realized that Suzy wouldn't be able to stand having the same bedroom as Annie without killing her, Suzy would need her own space. So Sara was created, just so Annie could have her room. As Suzy states, things are very convenient for a Sue. That's why I thought it would be fun to mix things up and make things less convenient by having Sara return.

That's all for this update. Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to review!


	8. Of Love and Legos

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Of Love and Legos**

Sara waltzed right in and straight to her room. Not even glancing at us, she slammed her door shut behind her.

"Who's that and why is she in my room?" asked Annie, curiously.

I answered,"That's Sara. You know, the person who's room I let you have."

"Oh," replied Annie. "Wait, then where am I going to sleep tonight?"

* * *

Annie slept on the couch that night. I had no qualms about spending the night with Stuart, what I did have issue with was leaving Annie alone, in my room, in my bed. My room was my space, and the one place that was Annie-free. It was where I went to get away from the world and relax. Stuart said it was just because I didn't have to share a room as a kid (and who'd want to with Gary as a roommate?). Then I pointed out he could sleep in my bed and let Annie have his room. His response was a pale face, and silence. I just smirked at him.

We promptly discovered that despite Sara storming into her room, she didn't actually lock the door. Further investigation revealed she was locked in her bathroom. Doing what, I had no idea nor the inclination to find out. Annie and I grabbed her blankets and pillows, along with le cutest lion (the one she had bought at the zoo) and set her up on the couch for the night.

I honestly expected Annie to make a big deal out of it and complain about 'how dare she steal my room' or something like that. Instead, she giggled, "It's like camping!"

"Yeah, it's exactly like camping. Except for the outdoors part, sleeping on the ground in a tent... other than that it's just like camping!" I giggled right back at her.

She frowned. "You're making fun of me again, aren't you?"

I paused, and looked at her. Up to now, she never paid attention to my sarcastic comments, simply dismissing them. The fact that she had picked up on it, meant she was really learning something. "Yeah," I admitted. Then I added, "And you should be proud that you picked up on it. It means you're actually learning something."

She smiled at me, and I did the same. Ugh, what was happening to me? Apparently, she wasn't the only one who was changing.

* * *

The next couple days Sara stayed in her room, coming out occasionally for food that consisted of ice cream, chips, and cookies. A couple times I knocked on the door and got a growl for a response.

What we didn't know at the time was that Sara was going through the five stages of grief. You see, Sara had walked in on her boyfriend with another girl. And by 'with' I mean all the way. Upon entering the room, the first stage set in, denial. It was quickly replaced by anger when she destroyed his guitar, and then bargaining. By the time she came to the apartment she was in the fourth stage, depression. Which she stayed in for four days.

On Wednesday, (why is it that everything happens on a Wednesday?) she had migrated to the couch and was curled up with a blanket, a box of tissues, watching Jon Tucker Must Die. I made the mistake of sitting down next to her, and she promptly attached herself like a leech to me, blubbering on about what happened.

Her boyfriend had been caught cheating, and she was upset over it naturally, and I would be too. But that night, Stuart was taking me out to a nice restaurant for our one year anniversary. And I was smart enough to realize that telling Sara, who had just broken up with her boyfriend, that I had to leave her in order to go out with mine, wasn't the best thing to do.

"There, there," I soothed, "It'll be alright." Meanwhile I wondered how I was going to get myself out of the situation. I had two hours before our date, but I needed to get ready, and finish Stuart's present.

Then, Annie walked in, returning from her job. I couldn't remember if there was ever a time that I was more grateful for walking in the door.

"Annie," I hissed, "Annie, come here."

She came, and took in the scene in the living room with a look of amusement on her face.

"That looks awkward," she commented.

"Look, I'm going out with Stuart tonight, and Sara needs somebody to comfort her. Would you mind? Think of it as a lesson in learning to listen to other people and caring about their problems."

Her lilac eyes seemed to ponder what I was saying, and she finally responded, "But I already listen to other's people's problems and care."

"I mean really listen, and not trying to turn the attention back to you."

"Hmm... I suppose..." she said while twirling a loose golden curl.

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" wailed Sara, suddenly, causing both me and Annie to jump. The fact that she wasn't growling at all was a positive sign.

Somehow I managed to untangle myself from Sara's arms, and Annie soon replaced me on the couch.

"What am I suppose to do?" she asked.

"Just pat her on the head telling her things will be alright, and listen to her. Then encourage her to take a bath, and eat something other than junk food."

* * *

Two hours later, I was dressed, the present was finished, and I was with Stuart at the restaurant. It was an Italian one, similar to the Olive Garden, but local, and a little cheaper.

I couldn't remember the last time it was just the two of us alone together. Life kept getting in the way for us to be an actual couple, doing things together. With Annie, Eugene, and now Sara, it felt like we were playing house with three kids. Three kids who we were more concentrated on taking care of than actually being with each other.

"This is nice," said Stuart, as I took a bite of bread, while waiting for our food to be served.

"It is," I agreed. "I know we agreed to wait to exchange presents until after dinner, but since we're not doing much now..."

I reached under the table, and pulled out a large box. "Here."

He tore off the paper, and opened the box . Coming up with a gift idea was hard. I wanted something meaningful since it was our first anniversary, but not to girly or mushy, because then he might not like it. Eventually I came up with what I thought was a good idea. For our first date, we had went putt putting, and had our picture taken in front of this windmill thing at one of the holes. Knowing Stuart's fondness for legos, I recreated the scene, with legos. It took a couple months, and a lot of consulting with Gary, but I managed to pull it off.

Once he realized what it was, he smiled. "Wow, Suzy Q, this is... awesome."

I shrugged like it was nothing. "Gary helped some. I just wanted something that you would like, and would be a creative idea."

"Well, it worked." Then he frowned. "I wish your gift was done, but it's taking longer than I thought. Think you can wait about a month?"

A month? Was he getting it specially made or something? Ordering it from another country? Getting it engraved? "Geez, I thought my gift took a while to make. What are you building me, a ship?" I teased.

He laughed. "Yeah, the S.S. Suzy Q. But really, it's a one of a kind gift, something you'll never guess. But it's perfect for you."

He was right, I would never guess it, and it certainly was one of a kind. But more on that later. The rest of night was perfect. Good food, and just the two of us. And the best part was that once we got home, Annie and Sara were gone.

****Author's Note****

A huge thanks goes to all my awesome reviewers:

Trickster91, SparklingMoonlight1, fencingfan, AwkwardedOut, Jana Girl123, Loki's Son, and Autaumn Wolf.

Next chapter will show what happened to Annie and Sara, nothing too bad of course.

Sequel Update: So far I have six chapters written with much more to come and I think the sequel might end up longer than this one. It starts about a year after the events of this one. Like this one, the League is more background and the story is more about OC's, including a couple new ones I'm excited about (one of which is more than capable of dishing back Suzy's sarcasm). Annie isn't featured much in the chapters I've written so far, but she will get her moment to shine. You'll also get to meet her original author. Oh, and Suzy discovers a new rule. That's all I have so far.

As always, read, enjoy, and review!


	9. Trick Or Treat

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Trick-or-Treat**

I guess in hindsight, I should have been more concerned about Sara and Annie not being on the couch when I got home. But I was more concerned with finishing off my date night with Stuart by watching Toy Story and seeing who knew the most quotes. I won. I still don't know whether to be ashamed or proud of that fact. Wait, did I just admit that out loud? Ugh.

Nevermind. The next morning I awoke to find the entire living room/kitchen area full of Halloween decorations. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling with plastic spiders, decals were on the windows, caution tape was draped over doors, and smiling skulls and pumpkins were on the counter top, along with a huge bowl of candy. I knew that I hadn't put them up, Stuart hadn't, and Eugene certainly hadn't, which only left Sara and Annie. It wasn't until later that night at supper, did I actually get the whole story.

Apparently after Stuart and I left, Annie did as instructed and consoled Sara. She listened to her, persuaded her to take a shower and eat some supper that didn't consist of junk food. I still don't quite understand what happened next, but somehow they managed to get on the topic of Halloween, which was coming up in a few weeks. From there, they decided to go out and get decorations. While out getting decorations, they also decided to get some costumes. Which led to Annie deciding she was going to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Annie going trick-or-treating really didn't surprise me, she was completely the type to knock on a stranger's door asking for something while playing dress-up. Nor did her costume, which was a robot-ninja-pirate-wizard-unicorn-nurse-vampire-princess-hero costume she had put together herself. Don't ask me how that's possible, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. What did surprise me was that she insisted that I join her and Sara for a 'girl's night out'. Which meant that they went ahead and bought me a costume so I would have no choice but to go. What it was, I'm not saying, and any evidence has since been destroyed.

What they failed to mention was their pit-stop on on their way to the Halloween store. The one were they swung by Sara's ex's place to grab her stuff, while Annie taught him a 'lesson' about cheating. Didn't find out about that visit until a week after when there was a notice in the mail from the boyfriend's family lawyer, who said if Sara/Annie came within ten feet of him, they would be arrested. When I asked Annie about it, she said it was her first time beating up a bad guy. That's when I made a note to myself to watch how much time the pair of them spent together, along with having a little chat with Sara about her influence on Annie and how impressionable Annie was, and what would happen if she turned Annie into a slutty bratty party girl (which I could see Annie becoming one perfectly).

Said little chat happened the day after I originally got the notice in the mail. I was taking out the garbage and recyclables, which had gotten harder recently because it meant avoiding the crazy dude in the trench-coat who kept going through out trash. It was watching him that I noticed a couple vodka bottles among the objects. Personally I have no objection to drinking, along as the individual does so responsible and I don't have to clean up after them. But Sara was still underaged, and I knew I certainly hadn't bought them. I tend to avoid alcohol since I'm a bit of a light weight, and am a clingy drunk, at least according to Stuart. Stuart is more of a social drinker and only does so with his friends, and I have never seen Eugene drink before in his life. So once again, I was left with Sara who was underaged, and Annie who I assumed was possibly of age, depending on what ID Eugene had gotten her.

Like I said before, drinking responsibly doesn't bother me. But a couple bottles gone in less than a week does, especially when they were most likely bought by a person too naive and sweet to realize the consequences of their actions if they got caught providing alcohol to a minor, especially with what was probably a fake ID. Once realizing this, I swore under my breath (which started the trench-coat dude who had been muttering something about aglets) because it meant having to have the conversation with Sara sooner than I planned.

* * *

Annie was gone still at work, and I had just gotten back from the dumpster only to run into Sara as she was about to leave for class.

"We need to talk about Annie," I said, and blocked her way to the entryway.

"What about Annie?"

"You failed to mention your little field trip the other day," I said, and shoved the notice in her face.

"So?" she said, not even batting an eye at it.

"So, you're a bad influence on her, and you're using her."

Sara let out a huge huff, as if she couldn't believe she was being bothered over such a small thing. "Please, how is that different from what you're doing? Making her cook and clean all the time. You treat her like Cinderella, while I'm the fairy godmother showing her a good time."

"Since when is being a drunk tramp considered a good time? And yes I use her, but at least when I do, it's to make her a productive member of society and less of a Sue," I said trying to defend my actions and fighting back the urge to hit her.

"I'm helping her being a productive member of society!"

I rolled my eyes at her weak response. "Breaking and entering, and beating a guy up, how is that productive?"

"It's teaching her stealth and giving her fighting experience for when she joins the League," she further explained.

I blinked a couple times. Since when did Sara care about helping Annie join the League? "Really? I call it teaching her how to be a bully. Cheating might be immoral, but it's not illegal. Beating a guy who can't defend himself to a pulp is."

Sara gave one last huff before saying, "Fine, I'll 'stop being a bad influence' on your precious Annie... but you have to come with us trick-or-treating."

She wanted me to what? "Excuse me?"

"You heard right. Did you know Annie's never been trick-or-treating before? It'll be fun, and we already have a costumed picked out for you and everything."

They already had a costume picked out for me. This could not end well. "Fine, but any proof of me wearing such a costume will be destroyed. And she's not my precious Annie."

"Really? Cause from the way it looks, you act like she's a little kid or puppy that can't take care of itself, that you have to do everything for."

"Do not," I denied.

"So you say. Just know you're going to have to let her grow up at some point if you really plan on her becoming less of a Sue, and more of a 'productive member of society'." Then taking her leave, she shoved me aside and went out the door while I was left fuming over the conversation. Because although I was right about her being a bad influence, she was right that Annie would eventually have to go out into the world on her own. A very scary thought indeed.

* * *

We went trick-or-treating, and told people that Annie was a 'special' child. The lie had worked in the past, so we figured it would probably work again. It did, and we spent Halloween on a sugar high. Annie was actually quite funny, since she was determined to get all the best candy and was even willing to push and shove little kids to do so. It actually turned out to be better than I thought it would be.

In the weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving break, Annie continued to work at not being a Sue, with some success. She actually managed to narrow down some of her powers. I suggested she picked a combo of powers that would make her unique from other members of the League, and would prove to be the most useful in the field.

Ever play Pokemon before? You know how upon reaching a certain level they would learn a new skill and if all the slots were full you had to delete one of the old ones to make way for new? Then, over the course of the game, your Pokemon had four moves to use, but actually had gone through more, 'forgetting' them? Well that's the best I can describe what happened to Annie. She 'forgot' some of her powers, and learned better control of others. She actually managed to cut the number of powers in half, having just ten. Flight, her healing factor, super strength, invisibility, super senses, breathing underwater, telekinesis, communicating in every language, changing her appearance, and not getting brain freezes. Granted, she still had more to get rid of (we reasoned that five should be the maximum), but it was progress.

Annie also made some adjustments to her costume design. One night we watched The Incredibles, and once she saw Edna's "No capes!" scene, she promptly went and got rid of hers. At Sara's suggestion, she also worked on toning down the Barbie pink color, to a softer pastel pink, with a soft purple as well. The whole, 'secret identity' concept was still a work in progress. After all, she had pretty much told Sara everything that night, so we were going to have to work on not telling strangers that she was actually a superhero next. It was a concept that she was having a hard time understanding. In her mind, there wasn't a problem with people knowing who she really was.

Other than that nothing exciting or important happened. At least not until Thanksgiving break.

****Author's Note****

Once again, a big thanks to my reviewers, Jana Girl123, Loki's Son, and Dark Thunder27.

I know Halloween is a bit late, but this chapter was written a month before it actually. Next chapter I'm really excited about since it has too big plot developments. Both are a long time coming, and one will finally set the last part of the story in motion.

As always, read, enjoy, and review!


	10. We Are Family

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**We Are Family**

For Thanksgiving Break Gary was going to give me a ride home. Nikki and him would be with my family for lunch, then her's for dinner. Stuart said he would love to join my family, but his was getting together at his uncle's which was across the country in Metropolis, so we wouldn't be able to spend it together. Sara went home, and Eugene was going to stay at the apartment. That left Annie.

I planned on her staying with Eugene, not really giving it much thought. A couple days before break, that all changed. I was packing my suitcase and asked for her help zipping it (her super strength proved useful since it bulging with all my clothes, books, and personal items). Once done, she looked at me and asked, "What's Thanksgiving like?"

"Well a long time ago the Indians helped the pilgrims and they had a feast to celebrate and give thanks. Which was stupid on the Indians part since more people came and gave them smallpox and took their land."

Annie ignored my sarcastic view of history. "I didn't ask what it was, I asked what it was like."

"What do you mean?" I asked collapsing on the floor, exhausted from packing the one suitcase. I still had one more to go before I was even close to being done.

She sat down beside me. "I mean, what do you do?"

Unsure of where the conversation was going, I said, "Um...all my cousins and aunts and uncles get together at my grandma's for a huge meal at noon. Some then go watch the football games, others stick around and play Rumy, and the kids go play. Then that night we have leftovers and plan our Black Friday attack with all the ads. Why?"

She shrugged. "Just curious."

Then something occurred to me. "At Halloween Sara said that you never had been trick-or-treating. Have you never experienced Thanksgiving either?"

"I know what is... but never had one myself," she said quietly, confirming my theory.

I knew what was coming next. By now she wouldn't ask, but I could see it in her hazel eyes. It may have been the exhaustion, or it may have been the thought of what her Thanksgiving feast would taste like, the image of her getting all the deals on Black Friday, or just me feeling guilty. For the next words out of my mouth were, "Want to join my family for Thanksgiving?"

* * *

My parents knew about Annie. I had to tell them what happened to Gertie at some point. Sooner or later they would notice the absence of my car. I just didn't know what their reaction would actually be when she showed up with me. My dad was all blase about it, while my mom offered Annie some cookies.

Curious, I tried to stick around to see what my mom would get out of Annie (not that she was one to hide much anyway), but my dad made me and Gary go and get supplies for my mom's pies that we'd be taking to Grandma's. With the way everybody went through them, she usually made at least five so there would actually be leftovers. When we returned, she and my mom were in the living room discussing recipes like nothing had happened. I tried asking Annie about it that night, but she just said that she and my mom talked, nothing more, nothing less.

Before I knew it, Thanksgiving had arrived, and the usual chaos ensued. Cousins running amok, being bombarded by relatives wanting to know how college was going and where my boyfriend was, getting stuffed on all the delicious food, the usual. Annie helped mom bake the pies which were more awesome than usual. My family just accepted Annie as a friend from college who didn't have much family of her own, which was true in its own way.

But none of that is important, well, important to what happened. Here's what's is. It was the afternoon, and everybody was clearing the table getting ready for Rumy. Looking around I noticed Annie was missing. After asking several of my cousins, I finally found her in the backyard, sitting on a swing on the play set. It was the old one from my and Gary's childhood days, that our dad had built by hand. Despite being a bit too big for it, it was still a hit with all my younger cousins, which is why my parent's still kept it around. It was a bit chilly that day though (even the nearby fountain had some ice on it) so nobody was out playing on it, except for Annie. If it could be called playing. She was instead just sitting still on the swing, not even moving.

"What are you doing back here?" I asked, sitting on the swing next to her.

"You're so lucky," she whispered faintly. "You have a family that loves you."

Startled by the conversation topic, I hesitantly replied, "You have one too, somewhere in the galaxy out there." Or at least I figured she did.

She shook her mass of curls and looked up at me with brown eyes. "I looked. Everything from my supposed past doesn't exist. I don't exist. I'm nothing but the creation of a thirteen year-old girl, remember?"

Whoops. "I was just angry when I said that, I didn't mean-"

"You were right," she said with tears leaking out of her eyes. "You've always been right. I'm nothing but a Sue."

I reached out a hand to comfort her, except my hand went straight her, like a ghost. Annie didn't seem to notice; she was still acting all lethargic and lifeless. Her curls were no longer bouncy, they were hanging limply at her head, starring into the ground. Then she started flickering like a candle, in and out, in and out rather quickly. I then noticed I could also see straight through her, as if she was nothing but thin it. And just like that, it dawned on me what was happening. Annie was starting to fade from existence.

Remember, Rule#4: Always Ignore a Sue? Remember why you were suppose to ignore a Sue? That if you did it long enough, they would just sorta fade away to nothing. I had heard of it, but never saw it for myself. Until now.

Until now, I had thought of Annie as an 'it', 'a Sue', not as a person. She didn't have feelings I could hurt. Sure she might cry, but it was Sue-tears and didn't actually count. I could laugh at her, use her to my advantage all I want, because she wasn't real; nothing more than my golden ticket to a new car. She was a little puppy that you constantly had to watch making sure it didn't have an accident you would have to clean up; a toddler who would touch dangerous objects such as a hot stove or electric outlet that required constant supervision. She was a Sue; she didn't _matter_.

She was like a jiggypuff. Pink, cute, annoying as hell to kill with their song and attractive attacks, but still relatively useless. As a kid, nothing gave me greater joy than beating them to a pulp in one shot, just like Annie.

Except now, she was different. Her hair wasn't perfect, snot was running out of her nose, her cheeks were stained with tears. She was real, and she suddenly was more human than I had ever seen. She may not have been ignored, but she was finally questioning her existence. And as a result, she was slowly fading away to nothing.

Before I would have cared about her fading away to nothing only because it meant no insurance to pay for my car. But now it was different. I cared because Annie just wasn't a Sue anymore, she was my friend. My annoying, naive, bubbly friend who would do anything I asked no matter what time of night it was. Who didn't mind when I insulted her with sarcasm, which was a really rare trait to find in a friend, trust me.

"Look at me," I said, getting off the swing and tilting her head up to look at me. This was rather hard since she was currently acting like Casper. "Annie, you may be a Sue... but..." my voiced trailed off as I noticed something. Her eyes were red and puffy, but their color was brown. Brown. "Annie," I said excitedly, "Your eyes, they haven't changed color. Every time I look at them, they're different. But they're brown, Annie. Everyday, ordinary, plain, mud brown. They're not Sue eyes."

That got her attention long enough for her to return to normal. Eager to see if what I said was true, she sprinted toward the fountain in the corner of the yard since it was evidently closer than a mirror inside the house (where it was also warmer). I soon joined her, and looked at our reflections that were semi-obscured by the ice floating on top.

"You're right, they're brown," she finally said after a while, "Brown like yours."

Looking closer at the reflection, Annie had noticed something I didn't; her eyes indeed, were now the same brown color as mine.

"Does this mean we're like sisters now?" she asked.

"I guess it does." And that didn't bother me in the least.

* * *

From there we returned to play cards with the family. Nobody said anything about Annie's new eye color, so I don't know whether or not they noticed or cared. The rest of the night was perfect. Except for when I got Gary's text.

It was a simple line, that I had to read twice for it to sink in: "Did you know the League was watching the apartment?"

****Author's Note****

Once again, thanks to my reviewers, Loki's Son, Jana Girl123, and CaribbeanTrinidadian.

So there you go, the two big plot points. Annie becoming less of a Sue was the main plot of the story, but there's been another hiding in the background. Next chapter will explain a bit more about what's going on, and things will get interesting...

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!


	11. All Along the Watchtower

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**All Along the Watchtower**

It took all the self control I had to sit on that message. If it wasn't for all the family, my mom probably would notice the worried look on my face and I would have blurted out everything. But I couldn't, at least, not until I had more info. No need to worry them when I didn't know that much. Except, despite all my texts, and voicemails, the only thing I got back was: Later.

When, Gary didn't say. Even on the car ride back to Central City he didn't say anything. In fact, he acted like everything was normal, causing me to start doubting the message in the first place. School started back up, and once again my schedule was packed. Annie returned to work.

I guess I should mention it, but ever since she became human... she changed. There were the physical changes such as no more pink highlights, her permanent brown eyes, her body was more... normal. Before her features had been too perfect, too harsh, too Valley of the Dolls. Now they were softer, sweeter, more girl next door.

Then there were the not so noticeable changes. Her food was still good, but not perfect. Some nights she would come home tired from work, settling for leftovers instead of cooking an excellent four course meal. She now snorted when she laughed, picked up on sarcasm, and was even starting to dish it back. Yet despite finally being human, she hadn't asked about going back to the League. And since I wasn't for sure what was going on, I wasn't about to ask.

That stupid message. Unsure of what was going, I didn't tell anybody of the stress it was causing me. Despite keeping it secret, Stuart, Annie, and even Eugene still managed to pick up that something was wrong. Whenever they asked, I just shook my head. Like I said before, no need to worry them until I knew exactly what was going on.

It was over a week later (once again on a Wednesday), when Gary dropped by the bus stop at school where I was waiting to go home. He offered me a ride and once I got in, he made a shushing motion with his finger. We drove in silence to an apartment that I was unfamiliar with. Later I would learn it was Nikki's.

The mood inside was serious, completely unlike my brother the jokester. Nikki was there, and upon arriving she used some metal thingy to scan me. Done she said, "No bugs. It's safe to talk."

And talk I did. "What's going on? What's with not answering me? What's with the whole secrecy thing? What's-"

"Look, we weren't sure what was going on exactly and how far their surveillance went," interrupted Gary. "Ready to listen?"

I nodded as he launched into the story. Apparently they were called in for some last minute work on Thanksgiving. Nikki was filing some of the job claims, including one from the Question for a new trench coat. The address he gave for the incident was my apartment building which she recognized. It wasn't much, but Nikki started flipping through some other forms, and soon found that other League members had been monitoring the apartment. That's when she told Gary, who texted me.

As for the 'Later' part, they wanted to get more info, and see how deep it really was. They discovered that the surveillance started right after I met Annie. Wary of bugs, and/or the League watching them, they took their time before telling me.

Just to clarify, it's not like Gary and Nikki hate the League, they really do enjoy their jobs (despite the awful blue uniforms). It's just, I was_ family_. Gary and I might joke with each other, but he's also the cliche protective older brother. He practically _interrogated_ Stuart when we made it official. And not in my mom's nice, 'have a cookie kind of way'. More like, 'you hurt her, I'll have the League after you' way. Not that he admitted to his job, but from I understood from Stuart, he heavily indicated that he was friends with some Leaguers, especially Big Blue.

Hence their 'investigation'. Once Gary was done, I was quiet for a bit. I finally asked, "So they're after Annie?"

"It appears so," answered Nikki.

"But why? I mean, sure she was a Sue, but she's not anymore. And I thought the League just kicked Sues out, not hunted them down."

"I didn't think so either," Gary said, shaking his head. "But all the evidence indicates otherwise."

A month ago I would have said good riddance and sent her to the League with a bow on top. But Annie had changed. She no longer was the annoying Sue she had been. I didn't feel the need to throttle her whenever she spoke. And she didn't deserve to be captured, or tortured, or whatever it was the League planned to do to her. Even if she had been a Sue.

"So," I said, "What do we do now?"

* * *

Eventually the three of us decided it would be best for Annie to decide since she _was_ the subject of a League investigation. I texted her the directions and she soon showed up along with Stuart and Eugene who were curious as to what was going on. Nikki and Gary then filled them in on everything they had told me.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked Annie once she had heard everything.

She shrugged. "I'm not going to hide. I'm going to live my life, and if they come after me, they come after me."

Eugene begged to differ. "How can you say that? You have rights, you should stand up to the League!"

"Yeah," agreed Stuart. "You should go to the League and meet them face to face. Let them see who they're condemning."

I was a bit shocked. Since when did Stuart care that much about Annie?

Annie turned her head my way. "Suzy, what do you think?"

She may no longer be a Sue, but she still valued my opinion and input. I supposed I could have told her to to tell the League to shove it, but then I remembered what Sara said. That sooner or later I would have to let Annie go. And what was the point of her becoming human, only for me to still tell her what to do? If Annie was going to survive in the real world, she was going to have to start making her own decisions, no matter how much it pained me.

That's why I replied, "I... um... think you should do what feels best. If that's confronting the League head on, then go for it. If it's running, or acting like nothing's happened, do that instead."

She nodded at what I said. Then with her mind made up she responded, "Fine. Let's go to the League then."

"Is that actually possible?" I asked Gary and Nikki.

"Well, it's not impossible," pointed out Gary.

"It'll just take some time to arrange things. I know a couple guys who owe me favors from repairing some of their stuff," mused Nikki. "Go home, and I'll text you when and where to meet me."

* * *

Four hours later we met them in a cornfield outside of town. Central City may be a major city, but it's still in the Mid-West. Once you get out of the city, you're in the middle of nowhere.

There ended up being the six of us. Annie wanted my support, and Stuart and Eugene insisted on coming as well. Chauvinism at it's best.

"Batman was called away last minute, and Hawkgirl is off duty, but the rest of the founders are there," said Nikki.

"Are you guys sure about this? I mean, sneaking civvies onto the Watchtower... you'll probably lose your jobs," I asked.

Gary clapped me on the shoulder. "They may be the League, and it may be an awesome job. But you're my Sis. In my book that's greater than the League." Then he added, "Besides Mom and Dad would kick my ass for putting my job above you. You know how important family is to them."

Nikki joined in, "Yeah, and if Gary's gonna get kicked out, I might as well too. The place would be no fun without him."

"Thanks," said Annie, stepping forward. "I'm not family, and it means a lot that you're doing all this for me."

"With those eyes you might as well be family," joked Gary. I had been wrong, somebody in my family had noticed the eye change after all.

"This is a very touching family moment and all, but we have less than thirty seconds before transport, and it'll be quite a bumpy ride for you noobies," warned Nikki.

* * *

Warned was right. Transporting isn't something I would recommend doing if you don't have to. Having your body hurtled from point A to point B in a couple milliseconds all the way through space, isn't the most enjoyable thing. My stomach did flip-flops which I didn't even know was possible. I wasn't the only one affected though. Stuart's, Eugene's and even Annie's faces were just as green as mine. How Gary, Nikki and others manage a commute like that every day is beyond me. I would quit after the first week.

Gary just laughed of course. "You'll get used to it eventually."

"Hurry up," said a guy with red hair. "There's suppose to be a shift change in five minutes. We're even now, right Nikki?"

"Right," agreed Nikki. "At least until the next time you spill coffee on your computer."

Stepping off the transportation pads, Gary lead the way through a maze of hallways.

"Where are we going exactly?" asked Annie.

"To go see J'onn, he's on monitor duty right now. He'll get things straightened out," explained Gary.

I only half heard the conversation that followed. I was too busy gawking at all the costumed people we passed. Vixen, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, Captain Atom, and Booster Gold were just some of the numerous ones I recognized. Then there was the view. We were in space. Space. And there were huge windows clearly taking advantage of the view. Between the heroes and such a rare view, I couldn't help but gawk. Annie was dragging me by the arm since I was apparently being too slow for her taste.

Except we never got to the monitor room. Nikki fell to the floor in pain, followed by Annie. The heroes around us were doing the same, collapsing to the ground screaming in agony. Black Canary was clutching her throat, Nikki could barely move her hands, there was even a blonde worker nearby who collapsed, and Annie was paler than a ghost (even beating how she looked at Thanksgiving).

Meanwhile Gary, Eugene, and I were looking at each other in shock, trying to figure out what was going on.

Then I was being embraced by Stuart, followed by a kiss. "Happy anniversary Suzy Q."

****Author's Note****

Another round of thanks goes to my terrific reviewers: Jana Girl123, Loki's Son, Dark Thunder27, Fox Alder, AwkwardedOut, and TheysayIamastrangegirl. I'm curious to see what you think of this chapter.

Next chapter will explain a bit more of what's going on, including Stuart's anniversary gift. He did say it was one of a kind, which wasn't a lie. Never said that Suzy or the others would like it.

As always, read, enjoy and review!


	12. Tough Love

I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

**Tough Love**

Remember that choking sound I made when I saw Gertie's remains in the beginning? Well I made it again.

Gary, horrified by Nikki's pain, grabbed Stuart by the collar and got right into his face, "What are you doing to her? Don't you see you're causing her pain?"

Stuart shrugged it off. "She'll be fine in a couple minutes once the machine is done recoding her DNA."

"Recoding her DNA how?" questioned Eugene.

Stuart grinned. "Suzy Q here gave me the idea with all her rules. Imagine a world without rules, without superheroes. No more powered freaks running amok causing chaos, no more alien invaders, no more science experiments gone wrong. I created a device that recodes the DNA of humans to make them normal, and aliens to make them human. The Watchtower is just a trial run, once it's done, the world will be next and the people who would normally stop it, won't be able to."

I was still in shock. On the whole it sounded good. That freaked me out a bit, that I was agreeing with Stuart's plan which clearly was wrong. The Rules may be around for a reason, but if that reason was gone, the Rules could go out the window. Like Stuart said, no more villains attacking, no more chaos, no more destruction. A nice, simple, safe world would be left instead.

"Tell me where the device is, or I'll break your face with my fist," threatened Gary.

Caught up in his pride, or ignorance, Stuart dismissed Gary. "It's too late, by the time you find it the process will be done, no matter what you threaten to do me." Then, Stuart turned his attention to me. "Suzy Q, you still haven't told me what you thought of your gift. I have to admit, this wouldn't have been possible without you and Annie. If it wasn't for her, I don't know how I would have ever gotten aboard the Watchtower."

"You're the reason the League was monitoring the apartment, not Annie," I said accusing Stuart, as things began to fall into place. Things like all of Stuart's late meetings, why he was suddenly so interested Annie and her situation with the League.

"Yeah, but everything worked out for the best in the end. You get the world you always wanted. A world without heroes, villains, and Sues. Where superhero insurance isn't necessary. Where you can go to get a cup of coffee in peace."

Like I said before, it sounded perfect. Villains not always escaping from prison. No more Sues. No more dangerous blobs or experiments. Physics actually working for once. Not having to worry about all the construction downtown from all the destruction from fights.

Except... not all Sues were bad. Take Annie for example, she had changed. And sure, there would be no crazy super-powered villains running amok, but there would also be no superheroes to stop them or other disasters. And with no Rules, the very first one would be gone. The heroes always win. Always.

A world without the Rules would be like those shows you see on TV, in_ that_ other world. Where villains sometimes succeed, and disasters strike with nobody to stop them, and people run around like chickens with their heads cut off worrying about the slightest threat. Did I really want to live in a world like that?

And that was when I made up my mind. "Annie," I said calmly, "tell your back story."

Eugene, Gary, and Stuart looked at me like I was insane. Annie made a choking noise, quite similar to my own. Every time she had tried to tell it, I had always cut her off before launching it. And when I finally ask her to do so, it's when my boyfriend's gone nuts and is trying to depower all of the League.

"Annie, I know you're in pain, but tell your back story." Then she looked at me with her familiar brown eyes. "Please."

Not sure where I was going with this, she just blinked at me and then began her tale.

"Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, a beautiful princess was born and was named Marianna Aurora Rhea Yew Sapphire Utopia Earthchild. She had gorgeous blond hair that shone like the sun, her bejeweled eyes were full of wonder. All adored the new princess, but some were jealous of her beauty and powers. Sensing that their daughter was in danger, the king and queen sent her far away to another planet. The little princess just managed to escape her planet's destruction by those wicked jealous evil people. She landed in the middle of the cornfield and was taken in by kindly farmers who adored their new child since they were unable to have any of their own. But tragically, they were murdered right in front of her sapphire eyes one night on the way back from the movie theater when she was only seven years old. From there she went into a series of foster homes and orphanages where she was tragically mistreated, abused, beaten, and worse. But she did not despair, for she knew she was special. Each night she would look up at the night sky, feeling as if her life was missing something and was destined for greatness. Upon her sixteenth birthday, her powers were awakened and the Amazons were so impressed, they decided to train her as their own. But then the evil jealous wicked people who destroyed her home planet found her on Earth and threatened to destroy Earth unless she went with them. So of course she was willing to sacrifice her freedom in order to protect the Earth. Once she was arrived on their home planet, their evil jealous wicked leader forced her to marry him, but she managed to outwit the leader and thwart his evil plan with the aide of his best evil handsome knight who turned out not to be evil after all and was her soul mate. The people of the planet rejoiced for they hated their leader but were too afraid to do anything about him. They offered her the position as queen, but she decided her place was on Earth after her handsome knight true loved who had chased her through the galaxy died in her arms. Instead, she taught them about democracy, and helped them set up a better government system. When she returned to Earth, the Justice League begged her to join them after everything she had done, insisting that she was needed. They made her the eight founder. And that extraordinary girl is standing before you today if you can believe it."

I knew there was a reason why I never wanted to hear her back story before. Cliches, plot-holes, OOCness, mysterious tragic past. It had all the traits of a Sue back story. In short, it was perfect.

When Annie first started, her voice was weak. But as she continued, her voice became stronger, clearer. No longer was she in curled up in agony, but she was able to stand up mid-way, and her voice boomed with sugary sweetness as she continued on with her back story. Her eyes were once again sparkling huge orbs that changed color, and this time her hair was turning all shades of a rainbow that weren't natural hair color. In short, she was reverting to her Sue state.

"I don't get it, what's going on?" muttered Stuart, as it quickly became apparent that members of the League were starting to recover from the machine's effects.

"You forgot part of Rule number four. Sues can manipulate reality and break rules," I sweetly reminded him. And then I punched him.

* * *

"And... well you know the rest. What's going to happen to Stuart? And Annie? And Gary? And Nikki?" I asked concerned.

I mean, granted Stuart would probably be locked up, but he was still my boyfriend. I think. Then again, I had punched him, which knocked him out long enough for the League to arrest him... and he had tried to basically take over the world... Ugh, Cosby Show, you taught me much when I was younger, but how to deal with a boyfriend who tried to take over the world, you did not.

Batman seemed to take my story in stride. "I'll be back soon," he said avoiding all my questions, but one. "For the record, the League does not hunt down and kill Sues." And then he left.

Once I had started talking, I kept going; only stopping the once when my throat got dried. But now that I was done, I was suddenly aware of just how tired everything had left me, and thought it surely wouldn't hurt anything to lay my head down on the table for just a couple seconds...

* * *

I awoke to light entering my bedroom, and the sound of birds chirping from outside. Looking at my alarm clock I saw it was just after two. Wait, two in the afternoon? On a... wait what day was it?

And then everything that had happened came back to me. Annie, The League, Stuart... Apparently those couple harmless seconds turned into a couple hours. And hopefully not a couple days. Looking down at what I was wearing, I saw that my jeans and hoodie were gone, and in their place were my pajamas.

I opened my bedroom door, and looked around only to find the apartment empty. After everything that had happened I had thought the apartment would be full of Leaguers canvassing the place for every last clue or piece of evidence. Well either that, or waiting to tell me that I was under arrest. Instead it was empty, and quiet, something it hadn't been in a while.

Unsure of what else to do, I got some cereal and turned on the TV. At this time of day, all that was on were reruns of Law and Order or cartoons. Not feeling the justice system at the moment, I went with cartoons instead.

I guess since she heard the noise, Annie came out of... Stuart's room? What the hell.

"Good," she said sitting down next to me on the couch. "You're awake."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"It's Thursday afternoon, so not too long."

Well since everything had started Wednesday around three, I really hadn't been asleep for that long then. Sure I was missing class, but it was dead week, and after everything that had happened I didn't care any more.

"Okay. So what were you in Stuart's room? And what did I miss while I was asleep?"

"You sure you want to know?" she said hesitantly, unsure of how I was going to react.

"Might as well, get it over with," I said with a sigh.

****Author's Note****

As usual, a big thanks to my reviewers: Loki's Son, Dark Thunder27, TheysayIamastrangegirl, fencingfan, and AidenSurvival. The fact that so many of you were surprised by the last chapter made me feel great as a writer, since I was a bit afraid that I had given too many hints.

Next chapter will be the last, and will have Annie explaining everything, including all the hints scattered throughout the chapters for those of you who never managed to pick them up, along with tying up all the loose ends. After that chapter, the sequel will start the following Monday.

Don't forget to review!


	13. Goodbye Stu, Hello Gertie 2

I do not own the rights to the Justice League

**Goodbye Stu, Hello Gertie 2.0**

So Annie filled me on what I had missed.

All those months ago, before Annie had shown up, I had thought Stuart had been cheating on. He was always out late, lying about where he'd been (I had a gut feeling, plus he kept making up excuses not to come home with me. The truth was, he was afraid of my mother's cookies), and something just felt _off_. But then Annie had shown up, distracting me as Sues have a tendency to do, and I didn't give his behavior another thought.

While Stuart hadn't had been cheating on me, he had been building some robots. Super robots bent on destruction. Like the one Annie was fighting the day she crashed into my car. So I guess in a way, Stuart was responsible for my car. (Come to think of it, he never once apologized for the car, even though he probably knew all along. Since he did know, he could have asked his buddy Luthor to buy me a new car. That would have been a much better anniversary present than what he did give. Though, I suppose it might have given their plans away).

So like I said, Stuart didn't do all this by himself, he was just a small fish in a bigger pond. Basically after Lex Luthor had used his power zapping device thingy on the Justice League posers, the idea had stayed with. Of course he vowed not to use it on the League, but the idea apparently remained. But he got sidetracked by deciding to run for president, the Brainiac incident happened, along with Darkseid, and the idea got postponed.

Somewhere along the lines, Stuart had written a paper inspired by my Rules for some class. It had gotten some attention among the academic circles, and eventually Luthor heard about it, and read it. Intrigued by the idea of no Rules, he contacted Stuart and they started coming up with their evil plan.

Now, Luthor wasn't the one to normally plot with a college kid. But Stuart was one of the brightest students in the school, managing to pull off a 4.0 in engineering, along with designing some rather kick-ass robots for his robotics club that had even made it to nationals. And Central City would be one of the last places Superman would end up looking for him, especially if he was consulting with a college kid.

The big gigantic robot thing that Annie had fought, was just a test run. Luthor and Stuart realized that although the device might affect powered superheroes like Superman, ones like Batman would be unaffected. So they planned on having a giant robot thing attacking Gotham to get him away from the Watchtower.

Of course, getting aboard the Watchtower to put the plan into place was an issue. It would have been a bigger one, if Gary hadn't opened his fat mouth and threatened Stuart with knowing Big Blue when he interrogated him after we made it official that we were dating. Evidently, Gary wasn't as good as keeping secrets as he thought he was. It didn't take much of a leap in logic for Luthor and Stuart to conclude that Gary either worked on the Watchtower, or knew somebody who did. After some investigation, they figured the truth, and waited for the opportune moment. Stuart had even come up with one if the Annie situation hadn't had come up; he planned on drugging me and claiming I was kidnapped so Gary would take him to the Watchtower to use League sources to track me down. Once Annie told me that piece of information that J'onn had read from Stuart's mind, I felt less bad about punching him.

After the whole robot thing in September, the League got wise that something was going on. The design was new, but the parts came from known Luthor suppliers. They managed to trace it back to an unknown person at the apartment. Unsure of which one of us was the culprit, they began watching the apartment. And the fact that one of the residents had a relative working on the watchtower didn't escape their attention either.

So in the end, Luthor worked on the DNA recombination part of the device, while Stuart worked on the robots and getting to the Watchtower to take out the League members. The crazy part was, Stuart didn't see his actions as wrong. He thought he was honestly doing the world a service (apparently partnering up with a known villain to do said greater good didn't raise any red flags). Despite maintaining the belief that forcing his will on others was the right thing to do, he made a deal with the League for a lighter sentence if he cooperated in capturing Luthor and convicting. Maybe he wasn't so dumb after all.

All of that had been taking place while Batman had been with me. Seeing as how my brother worked on the Watchtower, the League didn't know just how much I knew about Stuart's plan, and if I assisted him with getting him aboard the Watchtower. J'onn was with Stuart, Superman was with Flash hoping to catch Luthor before he fled Central City, Green Lantern was with Nikki, Wonder Woman with Gary (I can only imagine how that went), and Hawkgirl had returned in time to be Annie (Annie admitted that she was grateful she was no longer a Sue. Her old self would have been clubbed in the head with a mace after a couple minutes with Hawkgirl). Basically a Leaguer with each of us, determining just how much of a traitor we were.

Notice how I left out Eugene. When I said that Eugene could have been plotting world domination in his room for all I knew, I wasn't that far off. He had actually been hacking his way into super secret encrypted government computer systems, including the Watchtower's. The League caught him, and once they realized where he resided and determining he wasn't the one responsible for the robot attack, gave him an offer: report on what was going in the apartment and determine which of his roommate's was responsible, and they wouldn't press charges. That was the real reason he had started joining me, Annie, and Stuart for stuff. Though, I still suspect Annie might have helped with that.

After determining I was innocent of any wrong doing, Batman had left to confer with the others and I fell asleep. Keeping Stuart, they determined the rest of us were free to go. Annie was the one who carried me back, changed me into my pajamas, and put me to bed. According to her, I was sleeping so soundly, that even the trip back home didn't phase me. And once they got home to the apartment, they found that other members of the League had cleaned out Stuart's bedroom.

Early Thursday morning while I was asleep, Annie confronted our landlord, about her living there, and potentially taking over Stuart's room seeing as how he was imprisoned (not to mention expelled from the university. Taking over the world is serious business, right up there with the no tolerance for plagiarism policy in the school handbook. Who knew?), so he wouldn't be returning anytime soon. That's why she had been in Stuart's room, she had been moving her stuff in.

Annie told me all of the above while I calmly ate my fruit loops. I think I was still in a daze trying to process everything that had happened. For when she was done I said, "Oh. Well that explains a lot."

"That's it?" Annie asked me, surprised. "You're not going to break down sobbing like Sara did?"

I looked at her, and shrugged. She was right, it was odd that I was completely calm and okay with everything. "First off, I'm not Sara. Plus... I guess I knew something was up, just was wrong about what. But now that you mention it, Jon Tucker Must Die sounds good right now."

She smiled. "Jon Tucker Must Die it is then."

* * *

You didn't think that was it, did you? And yes, I'm referring to you, the audience. After everything that's happened, surely _someone_ out there is following along. There are some things that still haven't been completely resolved.

Like Gary's and Nikki's fates. They were suspended from their jobs pending an investigation. They were found to be innocent of any wrong doing and were back on the watchtower after a week. During that week, my mom called saying that the Batman had stopped by after hearing about her cookies, and she just didn't see how anybody could possibly be afraid of him. Although Gary never confirmed it, we both had a suspicion that he wanted to see if mom lived up to my description of her, and both agree that she managed to get his secret identity out of him., which may have been why Gary and Nikki were allowed to return to work. Maybe. Nobody can resist the power of the cookies.

As for Annie, after seeing her progress, she was offered a position on the League. But she turned it down. She said that after everything she had been through, being a member of the League no longer mattered. Oh, and the whole back story moment, when she reverted back to her Sue state. Was just that, a state. Something she can switch back to when needed, like a certain gear or mode. I think both of us are grateful it wasn't permanent; after everything we had done, we didn't want to start all over. Although I can't seem to think of many times when she'll need it.

Oh, and she did manage to narrow down her powers to just five after some more work. Her healing factor since it came in handy with cuts and burns from cooking, super strength which was handy for moving stuff around, super senses to watch future Sues, communicating in every language (the League actually started using her as a translator on retainer. Never know when some intergalactic alien will show up and be unable to understand English). And of course, not getting brain freezes. It's nice to know that if a super villain ever has a plan involved with a bunch of ice cream that can't be melted for some reason, Annie is available to eat it all. We don't count her Sue state as a power though, since it's more of a state of mind, than a power that's always available.

She also quit her job as a maid. Annie may have turned the League's proposition as a member, but she did give them another one. If they helped finance it, she would set up a boot camp they could send to Sues to, to unSueify them. They took her up on it, figuring that the Sues could be useful in the future, and construction will begin this spring outside of town. Eugene even plans on helping with it, and Annie offered me a position as well as a counselor. Despite every rational part of my body saying I had just managed to unSueify Annie, I took her up on it. I'll need the money for superhero insurance for my new car.

That's right new car. Since it was determined that Annie had been fighting a robot, which was financed by Lexcore, the League could pay to replace Gertie. Technically, they could have done this before but didn't, since they were unsure of how involved I was. So in the end, Stuart did end up paying for Gertie 2.0. It's not the same as the original, but it's good in it's own way.

And as for Stuart, he's in some white-collar prison. He sent me a couple letters begging for my forgiveness, saying that he actually thought I would like what he was doing. I haven't responded to any of them. My silence should be enough to tell him what I think. Well, that and the fact that I did punch him and defeated his evil plan.

According to the rules, it's only a matter of time before he escapes. But I'm not worried, I got Rule Number One on my side. The good guys always win. Always.

****Author's Note****

First off, a huge thanks to all the readers for sticking with this story. I hope you stick around for the sequel and enjoy it as well. Also, another enormous thanks to all my reviewers: Loki's Son, fencingfan, Fox Alder, Dark Thunder27, Jana Girl123, and AwkwardedOut. I always looked forward to reading your reviews after a long day of classes.

So, the sequel will be posted next Monday and is titled, _The Trouble With Worlds_. As for the summary:

A year after The Trouble With Sues, Suzy thinks that her life has finally quieted back down. Until she is transported to our world after a slight mishap with Eugene's device, which was suppose to reunite Annie her with her author. So much for a quiet life.

Once again, thanks for reading and don't forget to review!


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